Eight Years On

On Gameweek 13 Lokomotiv were scheduled to travel to Torpedo’s ground. The Black-Whites are renting a stadium in Ramenskoe just outside Moscow. It goes without saying how important this game was both for the players and the fans. The passionate derby between Lokomotiv and Torpedo hadn’t happened in eight years, and now the time has come.

Compared to the victorious game against Dinamo the manager Bozovic made only one change in the lineup: central defender Vedran Corluka was back after serving a one-match suspension. On the other side of the field, eyes focused on Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, a native of Lokomotiv and the team’s former captain.

From the very first minutes, midfield was the main battleground. Every successful tackle resulted in a fast attack. On four minutes Dame Ndoye rushed at the goal up the centre but his strike at the near corner was inaccurate.

As the game progressed, Lokomotiv had more chances to approach the hosts’ area while Torpedo’s rare attacks were dismantled by the Railwaymen’s defensive midfield. But still our own offences lacked sharpness at the final stage: several crosses produced by Alexander Samedov and Renat Yanbaev were always a bit reckless to fit Ndoye.

On 22 minutes Torpedo finally managed to respond when their Portuguese striker Viera took a solid long-range shot at Abaev’s goal but Ilya parried. Diniyar Bilyaletdinov wanted to finish off but failed to strike properly and sent the ball wide.

Lokomotiv immediately launched two dangerous offensives. First, Manuel Fernandes demonstrated a masterful pitch vision and passing ability when he played a long ball across half the field sharply into Samedov’s feet. Alexander hit it first touch but sent it to row Z. Then Mykhalyk came to the limelight. In one episode, the Ukrainian made an impressive run down the right wing. Soon he found himself in the area with the ball, saw Samedov behind in a scoring position and heeled back to him but again Alexander failed to kick properly.

On 33 minutes Bilyaletdinov decided to go for glory from a distance, however, Abaev did his job well. This was Torpedo’s last attack in the first half that ended in a shot at the goal. Lokomotiv now had the initiative.

After the restart, the game’s general direction  didn’t change. Lokomotiv boosted up speed and started seeing more spaces in the hosts’ defence. Fifteen minutes on, Alan Kasaev set up for Vedran Corluka. The Ossetian dribbled two opponents and passed to Corluka who wanted to drive in a header but Zhevnov made a super-save.

However, the total domination had to convert to a goal, and it did. A minute later Boussoufa ran up the centre and made a cutting pass to Ndoye. The Senegalese effectively shook off his marker and rolled the ball past the keeper.

Very soon Torpedo had a good chance to level when Stevanovic hurled the ball under the very crossbar but Abaev demonstrated perfect reflexes parrying it, and minutes later he was effective at clearing a high ball.

Torpedo tried to claim the ball but instead they couldn’t even produce a faint replica of a simple massive attack. Lokomotiv’s play was balanced, they defended well and kept stinging the hosts with rapid counter attacks.

Several minutes before the end of the game, Lokomotiv should have made their victory unquestionable when Pavlyuchenko received a pass from Maicon, worked and ran one vs one with Zhevnov. Roman made a spectacular chip shot that came off the crossbar. This gave the hosts some more hopeful minutes, but that was it. Lokomotiv heard the final whistle while trying to score another goal.

Torpedo – Lokomotiv 0:1 (0:0)

Goal: Ndoye, 60.

Torpedo: Zhevnov, Kokoszka, Rykov, Katsalapov, Kombarov, Mirzov (Putilo, 64), Stevanovic, Steklov, Bilyaletdinov (Davydov, 87), Shavchenko, Viera (Salugin, 71).

Lokomotiv: Abaev, Yanbaev, Corluka, Durica, Denisov, Mykhalyk, Fernandes, Samedov, Boussoufa (Sheshukov, 77), Kasaev (Maicon, 80), Ndoye (Pavlyuchenko, 85).

Yellow cards: Shevchenko, 3. Kasaev, 25. Kokoszka, 39. Boussoufa, 65. Steklov, 66. Ndoye, 85. Rykov, 85. Kombarov, 90. Sheshukov, 90.

Referee: Alexander Yegorov (Saransk).

November 8. Ramenskoe, Saturn Stadium.