Last-minute slip-up

Stripped of his two main spearheads Roman Pavlyuchenko and Felipe Caicedo, Jose Couceiro made a non-standard move: he installed Dmitry Torbinsky in the central attacking position.

The first minutes of the game saw no opportunities from either side, but then the Railwaymen grabbed the initiative. In the 17th minute Denis Glushakov rounded several opponents in a row and shot from near the edge of the box but the ball went to the wrong side of the post. Seven minutes later Loko played a free kick in the dangerous proximity from Dynamo’s goal but after Andrey Eschenko’s shot the ball got stuck in the wall built by the keeper.

But everything was ready for a goal, and in the 27th minute the ball crossed Dynamo’s goal-line. Lokomotiv played a corner, Vladislav Ignatiev centered a high ball and Maxim Belyaev scored.

In the 42nd minute a small conflict happened. Dynamo player Rykov kicked Taras Burlak who was running back to his half after playing a corner but the referee only showed a yellow card to Rykov. Nikolaev also awarded a free kick to Lokomotiv but the ball went above the crossbar after a shot by Shishkin.

Early into the second half Dynamo equalized. Filtsov had no chance to stop the ball after a masterfully performed bicycle kick by Kevin Kuranyi, but two minutes later the keeper really saved his team deflecting a close-range shot by Alexander Samedov.

The next 15 minutes kept Loko’s goalie pretty busy making him perform some more impressive saves but then the Railwaymen managed to push the epicenter back to Shunin’s goal. In the 75th minute Shishkin carried the ball along the left flank and crossed but Kokorin handled the ball. This episode however was totally ignored by the referee and a deserved penalty was not given.

Lokomotiv continued pressing their opponents and managed to score again in the 80th minute. Eschenko made an impressive run with the ball along the right flank, passed to Torbinsky who crossed sharp to Glushakov and the cap scored a header.

But alas, Lokomotiv did not manage to hold the score and conceded a goal in the last minute of added time. Zvezdan Misimovic made a powerful shot from the edge of the box, the ball bounced from a defender and went into an empty corner of the goal.

Dynamo - Lokomotiv 2:2 (0:1)

Goals: Belyaev, 27 (0:1). Kuranyi, 47 (1:1). Glushakov, 80 (1:2). Misimovic, 90+2 (2:2)

Dynamo: Shunin, Fernandez, Granat, Wilkshire (Epureanu, 52), Rykov, Misimovic, Yusupov (Sapeta, 68), Samedov, Noboa, Kokorin, Kuranyi.

Lokomotiv: Filtsov, Burlak, Shishkin, Eschenko, Belyaev, Zapater (Ibricic, 52), Glushakov, Ignatiev (Sychev, 88), Torbinsky, Ozdoev, Obinna (Grigoriev, 60).

Yellow cards: Zapater, 31. Rykov, 43. Eschenko, 48. Ozdoev, 52. Fernandes, 57. Belyaev, 78. Sapeta, 82.

Referee: Alexei Nikolaev.

May 5. Khimki. “Arena-Khimki”. 10193 spectators.