Lokomotiv Stadium

Under the roof of the "РЖД Арена" name sits a ground that Muscovites still call "Локомотив" whenever a European night or a national-team fixture comes round — the club and UEFA both keep the old title alive, even though the operator changed it on paper in 2017. That renaming came after the site had already been rebuilt once from the ground up: a stadium called "Сталинец" opened here in the 1930s, was pulled down, and a new "Локомотив" rose in its place in 1966 before the current arena replaced that one too in 2002.

The 2017 refit did more than swap the sign. Seats went in matching the club's colours — red on the upper tier, green below — and four new screens went up.

The pitch is a hybrid, Desso GrassMaster, reinforced turf with underfloor heating. Around it, the press box holds 236, and nearly a thousand padded seats sit in the open VIP sections.

There is history here that predates the club itself: in August 1992, the old ground hosted Russia's first official match after the Soviet collapse, a 2:0 win over Mexico. The relationship between the ground and its own crowd has not always been smooth — the safety netting in front of the south stand came down in 2008, and objects thrown onto the pitch became a recurring problem afterwards.