The Winning Rain

Before the starting whistle the heavy rainfall became the main event of the oncoming game. Match was delayed on one hour 15 minutes – and in 21:15 players came to the green grass of the pitch, which had done a great job with such an ordeal.

In the first half Lokomotiv played better and had some chances but Krasnodar has been managing to save its goal. However four minutes before the halftime Maicon and Alexander Samedov made a brilliant combination in the middle, and Samedov passed the ball to the left to Vitaliy Denisov: Lokomotiv’s left fullback hasn’t missed.

Right after that Dame N'Doye could score a second goal but was stopped by Artur Jędrzejczyk in a hard tackle. Jędrzejczyk was the last defender in a N’Doye’s way, so the referee sent him off by the straight red card.

Despite of Railwaymen numerical advantage, Krasnodar managed to equalize the score in the first 15 minutes of the second half. The referee decided to punish Dmitriy Tarasov for holding Gazinskiy for his jersey and award Krasnodar a penalty. Joaozinho beat Abaev from 11 meters.

Lokomotiv ran into a large force attack but managed to score only in the 83th minute. Maicon made a pass from the right flank where N’Doye like a real master went away from the defender and the goalkeeper and sent the ball to the empty net!

Five minutes later Railwaymen scored another goal. After the next attack the ball has ricocheted from Filtsov to Jan Durica, the Slovakian defender turned around and smashed it to the near corner! 3:1 – the great win by Lokomotiv!

Lokomotiv - Krasnodar 3:1 (1:0)

Goals: Denisov, 41 (1:0). Joaozinho, 59 - penalty (1:1). N’Doye, 83 (2:1). Durica, 88 (3:1).

Lokomotiv: Abaev, Corluka, Durica, Denisov, Shishkin, Tarasov, Tigorev, Samedov, Tkachyov (Caicedo, 73), Maicon (Obinna, 84), N’Doye.

Krasnodar: Filtsov, Martynovich, Jędrzejczyk, Kaleshin, Smolnikov, Gazinskiy (Mamaev, 85), Joaozinho, Marcio (Drincic, 65), Pereira (Tubic, 46), Petrov, Vanderson.

Yellow cards: Martynovich, 10. Tigorev, 70. Vanderson, 71.

Red card: Jędrzejczyk, 45.

Referee: Sergey Karasev (Moscow).

5th August. Moscow. Lokomotiv Stadium. 8 463 spectators.