Stalemate in Vladikavkaz

Playing 3 times away from Moscow in succession was never going to be an easy task and thus 3 wins out of 3 were deemed quite impossible. Unfortunately the task was made even harder because in the last two matches, Lokomotiv were left to play a man down for much of the time. On Sunday, Durica, who was never shown a straight red card throughout his career, was the one to be shown his marching orders for comitting a "last man" offence. Unlike last week, this time round the referee was shown to sent-off our defender as a last man offence is always a penalty or freekick and a red card. To make it worse for us, the offence took place in our box and as a result Alania were awarded a penalty. Fortunately for us, the Caucasians failed to capitalise and thus at the end, I might say that even if he left his teammates in a precarious position, Durica may have did the right thing as surely the onrushing Alania striker would have buried home.

Alas, due to internet problems which have been tormenting me during the last few days, I wasn't able to watch the match and thus truly apart from a small summary, I can't really say anything. From a match footage I've viewed (click here), I deem that even when Lokomotiv went down to 10 men, Alania Vladikavkaz failed to threatened and actually it was only on one occasion which Alania could have broken the deadlock as Arsen Khubulov's long range shot rattled the crossbar. At the other end of the pitch, Lokomotiv had one particular chance which should they have worked it better, Loko could have came out with the whole 3 points from Republican stadium Spartak. Pity, but well at least we managed to hang on for a goalless draw.

With regards to the players, from what I've saw on several Lokomotiv blogs I must say that the two who impressed the most were Guilherme and Glushakov. On the other hand, more was exptected from Aliev and Wagner and some also blamed Durica as they've believed that eleven against eleven Lokomotiv would have fared better. Fair point. Another player who let down the fans was Tarasov because it was his missed header which forced Durica to commit the offence which eventually turned the match in favour of Alania.

Anyways, although we failed to win, we're still occupying the fifth place due to a better head-to-head record but with a match versus Rubin Kazan still looming and Spartak Nalchik down the neck, we should make sure to do our best and win the remaining matches in order to spare unpleasant surprises at the conclusion of the championship. Let's hope for the best!!