Today, the UEFA Headquarters at Nyon were the stage for both the Champions League and Europa League draw. Being drew in group 7, Lokomotiv had to face one of Timisoara (Romania), PAOK (Greece), Motherwell (Scotland), Gyor (Hungary), Dnepr Mogilev (Belarus) and Lausanne-Sports (Swizterland). Eventually, Lokomotiv were drawn against Lausanne-Sports.The first leg will be played in Switzerland, at their 16-000 all seater Stade Olympique de la Pontaise on the 19th of August while the return will take place in Moscow on the 26th of August.
Something about Lausanne-Sports....
Lausenne-Sports were established in 1896 and they are based based at Lausanne, Switzerland. To date, Lausanne-Sports has won the Swiss Super League and Swiss Cup on seven and nine times respectively. Despite this rich history, Lausanne-Sports currently plies it's trade in the Swiss Challenge League, that is the second tier of the Swiss League system. Actually, they only qualified to the Europa League only through their appearance in the Swiss Cup Final, which they lost 6-0 to Basel FC. Their star players are Silvio, who scored 3 goals in 4 appearances in the Europa League and their captain Fabio Celestini, who made 35 appearances for the Swiss National Team.
In order to make it to here, Lausanne-Sports eliminated Bosnian Borac Banja Luka and Danish Randers FC with an aggregate of 2-1 and 4-3 respectively.
Although on paper it seems an easy tie, there are no easy games at such stage of such competition. Although we should be optimistic, it is important that Lokomotiv be cautious in their approach. Recall that Lausanne-Sports are on the same level of Zulte Waregem, the club which eliminated us in our last European appearance. Let's hope for the best anyways and let's hope that by then we would have added a decent striker in our ranks!!
Goodluck Lokomotiv!!
*For the record, Sibir Novosibirsk and CSKA Moscow will face PSV Eindhoven and Anorthisis Famagusta respectively*
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