Following last week's morale boosting win over CSKA, Lokomotiv flew to Tomsk in a confident mood of picking where they left last Sunday. Obviously last week's performance instilled some belief in the majority of Lokomotiv players and although trips to Siberia are anything but easy some, including me, were confident that in a way or another Lokomotiv will manage to return back to Moscow with full points. Unfortunately however this wasn't to be as Tom Tomsk made their home tag reputation no damage and proved to be more than a worthy opponent to Lokomotiv. Although Lokomotiv managed to go ahead through hot prospect Alan Gatagov, the Siberian outfit pegged us almost immediately as form insistence of once Loko-wanted Artem Dzyuba forced Guilherme to a difficult save, which however wasn't enough to deviate the trajectory of the ball out of the goal. Yanbaev, ran to the ball in an attempt to clear the ball but however miserably failed as his clearance bounced onto the upright and onto the net. Maybe Shiskin, who was close to the action could have done better. But anyways what's done is done and cannot be reversed. Although Lokomotiv went for a win, the draw against Tom shouldn't be considered as a negative result. Truly that Lokomotiv still failed to win one single away match but the league is not over and should the guys give their best I am pretty sure that we won't finish the season without a single away win. Anyways let's hope so because it would be disastrous for a club of our stature.
Having to make without derby hero Maicon and Malkhaz Asatiani due to suspension, Semin made some slight changes in the initial line-up. Actually Semin made no changes as the only two changes were those forced one due to the aforementioned suspension. Durica made his first start for Lokomotiv this season and given that he is left footed Marko Basha had to move to the right of the heart of the defence in order to accomadate the Slovakian. At the other end Gatagov replaced Maicon and started on the left flank. On the other hand the other 9 kept their respective place and position.
Following a dull opening 20 minutes, in which most of the play took place in the middle of the park, the match finally came into life. First Aliev threatened severely Pareiko with a 45-metre freekick and then Loskov failed to volley home with a close range effort as his shot was dealt without any problems by the Tom Tomsk captain. By now Lokomotiv had the most of the play and were the most likely to open to score. And actually, with 5 minutes to go, Lokomotiv raced ahead. Gatagov was played through majestically by Sychev and after bringing down the ball beautifully he showed a composure of a 30 year old by slidding the ball between the legs of the opposition. One up for Lokomotiv, a lead which however was short-lived as Tom Tomsk pegged Lokomotiv back immediately as described above. Guilherme was furious as obviously such effort could have been dealt a lot better.
After playing second fiddle for much of the first peiord, Tom Tomsk came out for the second in a more aggressive manner. Actually the hosts started to close down the opponents at the middle of the park and thus Lokomotiv were limited into their own half and started to operate on counter attacks. In a game of two faces, now it was Tom Tomsk who were doing the game, even when Tom Tomsk ended up with ten due to a hiliarious sending off of Kim Nam-Il, who was given his second yellow card for telling the ref to book a Lokomotiv player. Rules are rules but certainly that was a funny way to send off a player. Nevertheless despite playing the final 20 minutes with one-man up, Lokomotiv failed to trouble Pareiko and thus had to settle for a one-all draw.
Player Ratings
Guilherme - 7
No chance on goal. Otherwise did nothing wrong
Shishkin - 6
Misplaced some passes, which some of them were rather simple
Basha - 6.5
Allowed Dzyuba to turn around him for the goal but otherwise was strong.
Durica - 6.5
Started in a clumsy manner but improved considerably as minutes went by
Yanbaev - 5
Scored an own goal which probably could have been avoided.
Glushakov - 6
As Shishkin misplaced some passes but grew as the match went on.
Tarasov - 6.5
An all around performance from the tall midfielder.
Aliev - 6
Threatened with a 45-metre freekick but that was all from the Ukranian.
Loskov - 6.5
Tried his best but that wasn't enough. Still Lokomotiv look better with him on pitch.
Gatagov - 7
Scored his second league goal of his career and caused several problems on the right for Tom.
Sychev - 6.5
Assisted Gatagov for the goal and tried to lead the line as he did last week.
Substitutes
Dramani - 6
Started brightly but faded.
Torbinsky - 4.5
When you are substituted after entering the pitch just 10 minutes before it is clear that he did nothing worthy. Very passive as outlined by Semin.
Traore - N/A
On pitch just because Semin have no other suitable options.
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