Lokomotiv Moscow moved clear at fourth place in the Higher League among women after a comprehensive 4-0 win at Ryzan-VDV on Saturday. The visitors took control early and never looked back, with goals from Y. Sheina, A. Solovyeva, P. Yuklyaeva and N. Korovkina sealing the result. And here's the thing — the pattern of this game told you everything you needed to know about where Lokomotiv stand in the title race.
Sheina opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the fifteenth minute, a moment that shifted momentum before Lokomotiv had even settled into their rhythm. Solovyeva doubled the advantage ten minutes later, and Yuklyaeva added a third just before the break. By then, Ryzan-VDV were already playing catch-up with nothing to show for their efforts.
Korovkina made it four in the forty-seventh minute, effectively ending any lingering hopes for the hosts. The substitution pattern told its own story — Lokomotiv turned to fresh legs while Ryzan-VDV could only watch from the sidelines. Lakeeva picked up a yellow card in the eightieth minute, a late concession from a team that had surrendered control long before.
The statistics paint a straightforward picture: Lokomotiv dominated possession and territory, while Ryzan-VDV managed to keep one clean sheet in eighteen attempts. The visitors have kept three clean sheets on the spin, and this performance added another to that tally. Ryzan-VDV's defensive record has been slipping — they lost 3-0 to Zenit just days ago, and this result extends that run of disappointment.
Lokomotiv now sit on 33 points from sixteen games, comfortably clear of the relegation battlers and pushing toward the top four. Ryzan-VDV remain rooted at twelfth with nine points from seventeen matches, a gap that feels insurmountable at this stage of the season. The old head settled them down in training, but results like this don't come from tactics alone — they come from the belief that something is different.