It's Our Game!

In the very first minutes Lokomotiv clearly indicated who were the hosts. Maicon managed a good attack: the Brazilian lost the marker and crossed but the pass was blocked.

Dinamo responded immediately with a counterattack up the right flank, but central backs Vedran Corluka and Jan Durica secured their territory. The Slovak particularly was indeed in form, having performed many successful interceptions and tackles.

Although by the mid-half Mbark Boussoufa and Maicon were shown yellow cards, the team also earned a dangerous direct free kick. Denisov fouled at the Moroccan international about 30 metres away from goal, and Mbark chose to go for glory but the ball wet just wide.

Soon Dame N'Doye came in the limelight. The Senegalese outran Douglas and was about to break away but the defender cleared the very last moment.

The second half began with an extremely dangerous kick from Noboa but Abayev's skill was enough to parry it. The hosts decided not to test their luck and pushed the opponents away. Aleksandr Samedov soon managed a good attack, the midfielder crossed to Durica who lacked just a fraction to reach the ball.

Just a couple of minutes later the Slovak had to work hard in defence. Dinamo played two consequent corners and after the second one Durica cleared off the very goal line.

With an hour into the game, the Railwaymen were dominating. Gabulov wasn't confident enough in the box, Boussoufa ran for the ball, got it and rolled to N'Doye who rifled but the ball went just above the crossbar. But five minutes later no one cared for the miss as N'Doye scored! Lass Diarra intercepted the ball in the centre, the Senegalese picked up the ball, dribbled Noboa and Granat and sent the ball home past the staring Gabulov.

Dinamo tried to get back into the game quickly and they were even close to doing so. When the White-Blues crossed from a corner and Abayev made a positioning mistake, the ball landed in front of an open goal and the situation was really shaky for Loko, but the goalie finally managed to grab it.

This episode was the last real threat to Lokomotiv's leadership. The hosts locked Dinamo on their side and several times were even close to scoring. Boussoufa ran away along the flank and centered into the box where Maicon lacked centimetres to pin the ball in. Then N'Doye went for a spectacular with his bicycle kick, and later Dame carried the ball up along the touchline, entered the box and rifled at the post. Maicon had a chance to hit it from the hole but the ball went wide.

Despite the pretty slippery score Lokomotiv won the game and claimed the three points, which allowed them to chase down the League leaders Zenit.

Lokomotiv - Dinamo 1:0 (0:0)

Goal: N'Doye, 65.

Lokomotiv: Abayev, Shishkin, Corluka, Durica, Yanbayev, Mikhalik (Ozdoyev, 64), Diarra, Samedov (Grigoryev, 79), Boussoufa, Maicon, N'Doye (Pavlyuchenko, 87).

Dinamo: Gabulov, Douglas, Granat, Wilkshire, Lomic (Zhirkov, 68), Dzudzak, Yusupov (Smolov, 68), Noboa, Denisov, Ionov (Voronin, 78), Kuranyi.

Yellow cards: Boussoufa, 20. Maicon, 23. Wilkshire, 33. Corluka, 36. Granat, 69.

Referee: Aleksey Yeskov (Moscow).

November 24. Moscow, Lokomotiv stadium. 14 190 spectators.