Late goal just enough for Loko to see off Amkar

Without playing impressing football, Lokomotiv managed to do the enough and scrape with a 2-1 victory over relegation-battlers Amkar Perm. Amkar, which following today's loss have an uphill battle in order to preserve their status in the Russian Premier, went ahead with a well worked goal and after defending resolutely for much of the match, everyone thought that Lokomotiv's recent run was coming to an abrupt end. Nevertheless, one player, ironically wearing the red-black of Amkar had other plans as first he gave away a penalty and then 10 minutes later gave away a freekick and got himself sent-off with an awful challenge on Rodolfo. Although I conceede that the defender may feel a little bit harsh done by the ref's decision to penalize him and award the penalty to the visitors, his challenge from behind on Rodolfo was crime against football and potentially could had left Rodolfo crocked. Eventually, Lokomotiv capitalised on the numerical advantage as from the same freekick, the same Rodolfo acrobatically gave the lead to Lokomotiv - which ultimately resulted to be the decisive one. The win ensured Lokomotiv to regain their fifth place from Spartak Nalchik and close the gap with Spartak Moscow (which could only draw against Sibir) down to 1 point.

For the match against the Urals, Semin opted for a single change from last encounter. Wagner, who last week had a very bad match, was benched and Tarasov was called on to make his 17th start of the season. The other 10 kept their places. The single personnel change also meant that Torbinsky was shifted to the left while Aliev started on the right.

Buoyed by the home crowd present at the Zvezda Stadium, the hosts started brightly and within 7 minutes Amkar were already 1-0 upNevertheless the goal was rightly called off as replays have shown that goal scorer Ristic was in an offside position before he headed home. This visibly instilled confidence in the red-black players and on the quarter-of-an-hour mark Guilherme was called onto action to make a double stop on the Amkar strikers. 7 minutes later, Amkar stormed ahead with an masterfully worked action. Volkov picked the ball at the middle of the park and as Ristic managed to draw both Basha and Durica towards him, the former Saturn midfielder perfectly played the onrushing Topchu through, and with only the goalie the beat, the former Kuban winger lifted the ball over Guilherme and onto the net. The stadium erupted. Knowing that Lokomotiv isn't an expert at breaking down defences, the hosts changed the tactics and focused more on defence. Actually this locked Lokomotiv down and with Loskov looking uninspiring it was no surprise that Amker headed to the break one-nil up.

With no changes made at the break, nothing much changed and soon Semin shaked up things by withdrawing Tarasov and Torbinsky for Gatagov and Wagner respectively. Although Lokomotiv managed to score the drawing goal through Gatagov, the linesman made the second right call of the night and rightly ruled it out for a centimetral offside. With Lokomotiv failing to step up a gear and no strikers at the disposal of our coach, Semin decided to play the last card, that is Rodolfo in attack. The move seemed to had paid dividends immediately as two minutes later Lokomotiv were awarded a soft penalty. Amkar felt they were harshly done by but Lokomotiv didn't mind and Aliev dispatched the penalty at the bottom right corner. 1-1 and game on. With the clock ticking and Lokomotiv desperate for the winning goal, the visitors put men forward and with 2 minutes remaining, they managed to bag the reward. Cherechnikov launched onto Rodolfo and Lokomotiv were rewarded a freekick while the Permian central defender was shown his marching order for a second booking. Aliev played a short freekick towards Sychev who without thinking twice crossed the ball to the centre. Unfortunately the ball was too long and looked destined to be heading for a goalkick. However, out from nowhere popped up Wagner, who played the ball back in the small box and with Rodolfo just metres away from the goal, acrobatically and with his outer of the foot managed to drive home and put Lokomotiv ahead. Rodolfo was ecstatic, and for sure it was the best possible present for his 28th birthday which he celebrated yesterday. Apart of the same Rodolfo picking up a yellow card which ruled him out of the next match due to suspension, there was no final drama and Lokomotiv were left to celebrate a fortuitous victory.

Player Ratings:

Guilherme - 7.5
No chance with goal and made several good stops. Reliable as ever

Shishkin - 6
Wasn't given much room to go forward but was defensively sound.
Basha - 6.5
Made one good tackle and closed down quite well.
Durica - 6.5
Developing a good understanding with his Montenegrin college.
Yanbaev - 5
Poor, offensively and defensively. Badly need to up his game.
Aliev - 6.5
Dispatched the penalty very well but that was all from the midfielder on the day.

Glushakov - 6
Quiet afternoon for the central midfielder.
Tarasov - 5.5
Couldn't get going. Hooked early in the second half.
Loskov - 6
Misplaced some passes. Couldn't inspire.
Torbinsky - 5.5
Quite poor, but hey, at least he didn't picked up a yellow card.

Sychev - 6
Expect better, but won the much important penalty for Lokomotiv.

Substitutes
Gatagov - 6.5
Did quite well.
Wagner - 6.5
Quite inexistent but assisted Rodolfo for the decisive goal.
Rodolfo - 7.5

Literally changed game. Won the important freekick, got Cherechnikov sent-off and popped up for the winner. Best player for the visitors - and all this in 15 minutes.