Today Lokomotiv travelled to Khimki to confront relegated side Khimki in a match billed David vs Goliath. Despite not recording the required yet unrealistic 10-0, Lokomotiv cruised and recorded a comfortable 3-1 victory. Unfortunately, the result wasn't enough to see Lokomotiv qualifying to the Champions League as Zenit luckily won against Spartak with 2 goals to 1 and held on their third place; third place achieved thanks to the combination of RFU and president Vitaly Mutko. For sure no Lokomotiv fan forgot April's match against Zenit! The final result was 1-1 but everyone know that Lokomotiv SHOULD HAVE been awarded the three points. The rules are clear and suppose for everyone, apparently except Zenit. Utterly disgusting. Is this the way the RFU wants to promote fair play? Bad example to everyone. Bear in mind that if Lokomotiv were given the three points on the table, Zenit supporters won't be celebrating their qualification as they are doing! But anyways that's football ... just ask the Irish. Still personally, given things took course, the fourth place is a good place for Lokomotiv. Moreover such results also ensures that after one year absence, European football will come back to Lokomotiv Stadium! Europa League here we come! Still, undoubtedly this Lokomotiv driven by Semin is capable of achieving by far more. This year was quite a turbulent one as Lokomotiv started under Rakhimov, then under Maminov and finally under Semin, thus meaning that the squad was in a transition. I am adamant that with Semin at the helm from the beginning next year Lokomotiv will come out more stronger. With a player or two Lokomotiv could seriously challenge for the Premiership! Let's hope for the best!!
Anyways back to the match. Given the limitations of the opposition, Semin opted for an offensive 4-4-2 formation. Guilherme made his 16th appearance while Kuzmin, Asatiani, Rodolfo and Yanbaev completed the back line. Torbinsky and Glushakov started on the left and right respectively while Wagner and Dujmovic partnered each in other the centre. Odemwingie and Sychev started in attack. Before passing on to the match report, I would like to bring to your attention that this today's match was Yanbaev's 30th, thus meaning that he didn't missed one match in the whole season! Congratulations Renat!!
Back to the match. Despite the undisputed difference between the levels of both clubs, no one thought that Lokomotiv would have took over the match the way they did. Actually in some moments I even thought that the 10-0 wasn't impossible as it seemed. In 15 minutes Lokomotiv were 2 up. By 20 minutes they could / should have been four. Odemwingie broke the deadlock on the 5th minute with a placed shot while Sychev doubled the advantage with a great header. Yanbaev assisted Sychev. Moments later Glushakov should have made them 3 as from 5 metres out he blasted his shot onto the keeper. From the resultant corner Odemwingie hit the crossbar. From then on Lokomotiv seemed to have shifted down a gear as they only troubled Khimki's keeper Komarov once before the half time whistle. 2-0 was the score at half time and 1-0 was the score in St. Petersburg.
The score at Petrovsky may have affected Loko's morale as they came out quite in an unconvincent manner in the second half. After coming twice with Sychev Lokomotiv suffered a lapse in concentration which actually allowed Khimki to claw one back through a diving header from Antipenko. This seemed to have brought Lokomotiv to life as they restored the two goal cushion immediately through Torbinsky. However, the goal was disallowed for an adjugded offence caused by the eventual assist man Yanbaev. Eventually Torbinsky was shown the yellow card for continuing the play despite the ref's call. After this episode the match slowed down and the match reached a friendly level. With minutes remaining, Lokomotiv made it three and practically closed the match. Torbinsky played a spectacular one two with Sychev and in front of the keeper it was more impossible to miss rather than score. However Torbinsky showed huge humility and instead of scoring the goal himself he returned the ball to Sychev by thus allowing him to score the 13 th goal, the goal which entailed him to claim his bet with former coach Rakhimov!! Sychev was ecstatic! Well Done Torba!!!! There was no change to the score as the ref whistled the final whistle, a whistle which draw the season to a close. Congratulations Lokomotiv!!!
THANKS TO THE WHOLE SQUAD, MANAGEMENT AND EVERYONE WHO HELPED TO MAKE THIS SEASON A SUCCESSFUL ONE!!
THANKS A LOT!!
Player Ratings:
Guilherme - 6.5 - No chance with the goal. Distributed well
Yanbaev - 7.5 - Tormented Khimki's backline from start to finish. Got an assist as well.
Asatiani - 7 - Rarely troubled at the back
Rodolfo - 7.5 - Closed the season in an emphatic wanner. Played some good balls and got an assist as well.
Kuzmin - 6.5 - Troubled a little bit at the back - all this due to his lack of speed.
Dujmovic - 7 - Started very well but faded as the match went on
Torbinsky - 8.5 - Pulled the strings in Loko's midfield - classy performance from the midfielder. Amazing humility.
Wagner - 6.5 - A little bit quiet today
Glushakov - 6.5 - An all around performance from the midfielder. Should have scored thou.
Odemwingie - 7 - Took his goal very well. Need to learn that sometimes he have to pass the ball rather than shoot it, but could be excused for that today.
Sychev - 8 - What more can you ask from the lad? Finished the season on high! Great performance from the assistant captain
Subsitutes
Gatagov - 6.5 - brought a lease of life when introduced
Kambolov - 6.5 - helped his colleges to close down Khimki
Sennikov - N / A - no time to impress.
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