FC Ufa host Ural Yekaterinburg on Sunday at the BetBoom Arena in the Russian Premier League as they look to bounce back from their 2-0 defeat away to Spartak Moscow last time out.
The visitors sit bottom of the Russian Premier League, picking up just six points so far this season, but remain just two points behind Ufa.
Match preview
Despite striker Hamid Agalarov leading the goalscoring charts in Russia this season with eight goals, Ufa have struggled, sitting in 12th position in the table, picking up just eight points after nine matches.
Two first-half goals were enough for Spartak Moscow last time out as they defeated Aleksei Stukalov's side, which saw Ufa suffer their third defeat out of their last four league matches.
However, the hosts did manage to record a 3-2 victory at home to relegation rivals Khimki in the match prior to Spartak Moscow, thanks to two Agalarov strikes either side of a Vladislav Kamilov goal, despite trailing at half time.
Ufa will certainly be looking to take all three points here as they host the bottom side in the Russian Premier League and build upon their one home victory this term, with the other four matches at the BetBoom Arena resulting in two draws and two defeats.
Ural finished in 12th place in the Russian Premier League last season and have had a disappointing start to this year's campaign, picking up just six points after nine games.
However, Igor Shalimov's side did manage to defeat Arsenal Tula last time out in a 2-0 home victory thanks to goals by Eric Bicfalvi and Andrey Egorychev to give them back-to-back victories in all competitions. Their other win came in the Russian Cup as they defeated Vladimir 2-0 in the second round.
The visitors are currently bottom in the away table but have played the least number of games with three. Nonetheless, they have still lost all three of their away matches so far, conceding seven goals and scoring none.
The last match between the two sides ended in a 0-0 draw at the Yekaterinburg Arena back in March of this year but Ufa did manage to win the last match at the BetBoom Arena in a 3-0 Russian Cup victory. Ural did pick up the three points, however, in this fixture last season, recording a 2-1 win.
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Team News
Ufa will be without Jimmy Tabidze due to a long-term injury issue, with Oston Urunov and Timur Zhamaletdinov both doubts for the match as well since they missed the last matchday squad.
Yuri Zhuravlev could return to the starting lineup as he was dropped to the bench last time out against Spartak Moscow, with the defender also missing out in the league match prior against Khimki due to suspension.
Aleksei Gerasimov will be suspended for Ural due to an accumulation of bookings, while Roman Emeljanov is ruled out for this one too.
Vladimir Rykov is also a doubt due to an ankle injury but Rafal Augustyniak is back fit and in contention after his injury.
FC Ufa possible starting lineup:
Belenov; Zhuravlev, Pliev, Jokic; Bauer, Kamilov, Krotov, Mrzljak, Cacintura; Agalarov, Krotov
Ural Yekaterinburg possible starting lineup:
Pomazun; Adamov, Kuzmichev, Mamin; Kulakov, Jovicic, Miskic, Kolesnichenko; Gadzhimuradov, Egorychev; Bicfalvi
We say: FC Ufa 2-0 Ural Yekaterinburg
Ural come into this one with confidence after picking up back-to-back wins but we are predicting that Ufa will get the victory here due to the visitors' poor away form.
Agalarov will be looking to continue his fine form here and we suspect he will get on the scoresheet once again for the hosts.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Ural Yekaterinburg win with a probability of 36.15%. A win for FC Ufa had a probability of 35.79% and a draw had a probability of 28.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a Ural Yekaterinburg win was 0-1 with a probability of 11.29%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (7.74%) and 0-2 (6.63%). The likeliest FC Ufa win was 1-0 (11.21%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.18%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with an 11.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-1 win for Ural Yekaterinburg in this match.
