LOKOMOTIV MOSCOW (Lokomotiv Stadium)

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE,
LOKOMOTIV MOSCOW 0-1 SCHALKE 04, ATTENDANCE: 21,471

Wednesday was a dedicated football day involving a double header and plenty of beer. What could possibly go wrong?

First port of call though was a visit to Lenin's mausoleum. The former Soviet leader's embalmed body has been on display since his death in 1924. There were plenty of people queueing and it took 40 minutes before I finally entered the tomb. It was a surreal experience.

From there I headed on the red-line metro from Okhotny Ryad but today it was in the opposite direction to the Luzhniki Stadium. Cherkizovskaya is the nearest stop to the Lokomotiv Stadium though my first game of the day was at the adjacent Sapsan Arena, which is also home to Lokomotiv's farm club FC Kazanka, who play in the third tier of Russian football.

The game was the respective youth fixture between Lokomotiv and Schalke. Entrance was free but there was no paper available. The match somehow finished goalless, as the Germans squandered numerous chances. It was an entertaining game to watch nonetheless.

The weather was appalling today as the rain lashed down. It didn't help that the roof in the small section of the stand that you were allowed to sit in was leaking so some of the available seats were drenched. I just about managed to keep myself dry. 

After the youth game, I had about 3 hours to kill, so I Headed back into town for a few light ales before the main event. The main event in question tonight was the Russian Champions Lokomotiv Moscow against German giants Schalke 04. 

the RULE Taproom. a welcome revisit.

The famous Lokomotiv train outside the RZD Arena

Lokomotiv were famously described as Moscow's fifth wheel as, during the Soviet era, Dynamo, Spartak, CSKA and Torpedo all won the Soviet title, the Railwaymen never did better than a second-placed finish and a couple of cup wins.

Lokomotiv were originally founded in 1922 as Kazanka Moscow, where they brought together the best footballing railway workers. In 1936 the club changed their name to Lokomotiv and won the Soviet Cup.

In the post soviet era though Lokomotiv have been a major force winning the  Russian Premier League in 2002, 2004 and 2018 as well as the Russian Cup in 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2007, 2015 and 2017. The majority of this success has been under the management of Yuri Semin, who returned to the coach the team in 2016 after initially being in charge from 1986 to 1990 and then 1992 to 2005. The club is also backed financially by RZD (hence the sponsored name of the stadium) which is a subsidiary company of the Russian state railway.

The Lokomotiv Stadium was built between 2000 and 2002 and is on the site of the original Stalinest Stadium which was opened in 1935. The ground missed out on selection for the World Cup due to not meeting FIFA's capacity criteria as it only holds 28,000. I say only holds 28,000 but that is more than enough for Lokomotiv's needs as in 2017/18 their average gate was around 12,500.

There were no problems obtaining a ticket for tonight's game as they were easily available online and printed at home.

The game though was an absolutely turgid affair. In mitigation the rain that had battered the capital all day didn't let up during the game and it meant that English referee Anthony Taylor had a pretty easy night.

Weston McKennie, whose name sounds like he is from Scotland but is actually an American from Texas, headed home in the 88th minute to give 'Die Königsblauen' the victory. The German fans in the corner celebrated as Schalke got their first win in this seasons Champions League but for Lokomotiv that is two defeats in their opening two games.

After sitting through that game I was in desperate need of another beer and fortunately Parka, not far from my hotel, was on hand to see me well into the wee small hours. Yра!

LUZHNIKI STADIUM (CSKA Moscow v Real Madrid)

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE, CSKA MOSCOW 1-0 REAL MADRID, ATTENDANCE: 71,811

After visiting Kaliningrad back in June, it was now time to rectify my mistake of only doing the one game during the World Cup. The Russian authorities are now allowing visa free entry until 31st December 2018 to holders of a fan-id from the tournament so when the respective European draws were made in August and the top 3 Moscow teams were all at home this week then the trip made absolute sense.

I landed Monday afternoon and, unlike the last time out, getting through the border was pretty quick though the young chap at the desk did look baffled with my answer to the question as to why I was visiting. I tried my best to explain the concept of “groundhopping”.

The aeroexpress train from Domodedovo airport to Moscow takes 45 minutes and terminates at Paveletskaya metro station which, as luck would have it, was only a 5 minute walk to my hotel. After checking in dusk was starting to fall so I walked into the city, via red square, to check out a couple of excellent beer bars, namely craft rePUBlic and Crafter Bar.

Tuesday morning/early afternoon was spent visiting the Kremlin. When in Moscow as they say. This of course created as groundhopping dilemma as at the same time CSKA were playing Madrid in the Youth League, so I could have visited another ground. In the end though I simply had to do the tourist stuff.

There was of course time for more beer, this time it was Jawsspot and Rule Taproom, before heading onto the metro to my first game of the week. The train though was not in the direction of the VEB Arena but the Luzhniki Stadium, as CSKA announced a couple of weeks before that all their Champions League games would be switched to the National Stadium. They also announced that tickets would be sold as a three game package, no surprise really given who was in their group.

A ticket stub from the game.

The ticket situation did give me cause for concern, especially after the tickets went on general sale and CSKA’s website would not allow me to purchase a ticket with a non-Russian credit card. In the end, and very reluctantly, I went down the Viagogo route and purchased a ticket through their website. If I had held my nerve, it turned out, there were plenty of tickets available on the day as the game wasn’t a sell out.

Of course the stadium is still fresh from hosting the FIFA World Cup Final, where France beat Croatia 4-2 to lift the trophy for the second time in their history.

The stadium was built between 1955 and 56 as the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium. As you enter the stadium from the metro, a statue of Lenin looks dominates you walk towards the turnstiles. The stadium was the main venue for the 1980 Summer Olympics.

In 1982 it was the scene of one of the worst football disasters when 66 fans lost their lives in a crush as fans raced for the exit at the end of a UEFA cup tie between Spartak and Haarlem. The official figure was 66 but several subsequent investigations and eyewitness reports put the death toll closer to 350, which would make it the worst disaster in the history of world football.

In 1992, the stadium was renamed Luzhniki Stadium. The name Luzhniki derives from the flood meadows in the bend of Moskva River where the stadium was built, translating roughly as "The Meadows". An extensive renovation in 1996 saw the construction of a roof over the stands, and the refurbishment of the seating areas, resulting in a decrease in capacity.

In 2008 the Luzhniki Stadium hosted the first all English Champions League Final, which was won by Manchester United, who beat Chelsea on penalties, John Terry’s famous slip in the shoot out being the decisive moment.

The original stadium was demolished in 2013 ready for the construction of a new stadium. However the cover was retained along with the facade wall, such is it’s iconic architectural status. The athletics track was removed to increase the capacity to 81,000.

CSKA were founded in 1911 and are one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Russia, winning 7 Soviet Union titles and 6 Russian Premier titles to date, the most recent in 2016.  CSKA was the official team of the Soviet Army during the communist era but since the collapse of the Soviet Union it became privately owned, with the Ministry of Defence as a shareholder. 

After finishing off my beers,  I caught the redline metro to the stop to Sportivnaya and joined the throbbing hordes heading to the ground. The walk took about 5 minutes from the station. Naturally after purchasing a ticket through a third party I was a little apprehensive but there were no problems entering the ground and I took my seat to watch CSKA take on the current Champions League, err, champions Real Madrid.

As you could well have expected, Madrid dominated the game in terms of the possession and shots at goal, the match statistics backing up this fact. This was despite missing the likes of Gareth Bale and Sergio Ramos and Luka Modric who started on the bench.

The decisive moment came after just 90 seconds when an attempted back from Toni Kroos was intercepted by Nikola Vlasic, who cut in on his left foot to slide the ball past Keylor Navas in the Madrid goal. Vlasic is of course on loan from Everton where the Croatian is deemed surplus to requirements.

CSKA withheld constant pressure from the Spaniards, who hit the woodwork twice, to hold on for the win but there was a bizarre moment in the final seconds of the game when Russian goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev, who recently announced his retirement from international football, received a red card after two yellow cards in a matter of seconds both for dissent.

A famous night for CSKA and also a great night personally after visiting one of the world’s great grounds. A perfect start to my three days of Pусский футбол!

MERSTHAM (Moatside Stadium)

FA CUP 1ST QUALIFYING ROUND, MERSTHAM 0-0 CRAY VALLEY (PM), ATTENDANCE: 125

This afternoon I belatedly got on the road (or should that be train track) to Wembley as I took in my first FA Cup game of the season.

A mate suggested a day trip to the big smoke for our game so after some deliberation we opted for Merstham versus Cray Valley Paper Mill. This was my suggestion in order to assist my seemingly never ending quest to complete all the ground down to non-league step 3 - just as I was getting close there was a league restructure this summer and I now have another 8 grounds to visit in order to finish off the third tier.

Team line ups - that is former Charlton and Leyton Orient
striker Kevin Lisbie lining up for Cray Valley PM

It was an early start as I left the house at the crack of dawn in order to catch the 0615 train to Euston. Obviously with such an early start it meant arriving in London before 9am. This meant there was time for full breakfast in Wetherspoons in Lee (not my choice as these days I am reluctant to hand over any of my hard earned to that Father Jack look-a-like) before catching a bus up the road to Blackheath for a few pre-match light ales. Our choice for imbibing was the fabulous Zerodegrees with a fine selection to choose from.

Once fed and watered it was back to London Bridge station to catch the train to Merstham. The train passes over the M25 as Merstham is in East Surrey, just north of Redhill.

Merstham Football Club were formed in 1892 and were founder members of the Redhill and District Football League in 1897. The club remained in that league until the 1950's when they joined the Surrey County Intermediate League before moving up to Surrey Senior League.

The club transferred to the Combined Counties League in 1984 and in 2008 they were league champions and earned promotion to the Isthmian League Division One South. In 2015 they were promoted to the Premier Division after beating Folkstone Invicta in the play off final. The club have remained at step 3 in the non-league pyramid since.

 The club have played at the Moatside Stadium since the 1920's and the club reached the national conscience in 2016 when Merstham hosted Oxford United in the first round of the FA Cup in front of a record 1,920 crowd.

Today the club were once again on the trail of FA Cup glory as they welcomed Cray Valley PM to the Moatside. On paper it appeared to look an easy tie for Merstham against opposition from two leagues below. However, football matches are never decided on paper!

The game finished goalless, with chances few and far between. As the game progressed it appeared more and likely the game was heading for stalemate as Cray Valley dug in for a thoroughly deserved replay. Indeed the visitors from the Borough of Greenwich, who play two divisions below Merstham in the Southern Counties East league, had the best chance of the game but Joe N’Guessan fluffed his strike with the goal at his mercy. Merstham had a couple of half chances towards the end of the game but that would have been incredibly harsh on Cray Valley.

Edit: The replay ended 3-3 and Cray Valley won 4-1 on penalties. They will now travel to Oxford City in the 2nd Qualifying Round.