Putin Cup - Match Day 6 Update

CSKA Moscow had the night off in the Putin Cup and Manager Smith will no doubt have been a happy man watching the results come in as his team remain top of the pile with the chasing pack concertinaing up behind.

Lokomotiv Moscow  0  v  0  Dynamo Moscow

Both clubs had the opportunity to jump into top spot going into this fixture and it proved to weigh heavy on the players in a nervy Moscow derby.

Dynamo had the better of the first half with CSKA keeper Guilherme pulling off saves from Adam, Ari, Ionov and Wesley whilst a sole effort from Soldado was the only real action Victor saw in the Lokomotiv goal.

The hosts faired better in the second half with Zurtuza and couple of efforts from Mamaev keeping Victor on his toes whilst Loko failed to register a single effort on target.

Both Owen and Razzaque will be disappointed not to be heading the table but will accept that a draw was a fair result on the overall balance of play which keeps both teams firmly in with a chance of progressing.

Zenit St Petersburg  2  v  3  Spartak Moscow

Zenit went into this game playing for pride whilst Spartak were hoping to regain ground at the top of the table that they had lost in recent weeks, in the end both Managers will believe they achieved their objectives.

Zenit took the lead on 12 minutes when Danny latched onto a through ball from Perez and placed his shot just beyond the despairing dive of Alvarado.

Lodygin in the Zenit goal made fine stops from Berg and twice from Costa before Alvarado was called into action again to prevent Danny from doubling his tally.

It looked like Zenit would make it to the break with their lead in tact but on 38 minutes Perez squared the ball to Shirikov who unleashed an unstoppable effort from outside the box which Lodygin could nothing but admire as the ball sailed past him into the net and sent the teams in at half time all square.

Spartak started the second half on the front foot and nearly stole the lead in 52 minutes when Promes whipped in a free kick which Soudani met on the full only to see Lodygin tip past the post.

The same pair combined again 4 minutes later to put Spartak into the lead, this time Soudani feeding Promes whose strong diagonal run into the right hand side of the area ended with a well placed effort that Lodgyin this time could do nothing about.

But Zenit weren’t prepared to lay down and their fighting spirit was rewarded on 69 minutes when Dzyuba met a cross from Kiyotake and planted his header passed Alvarado for the equaliser.

The home crowd had hardly finished celebrating when 2 minutes later Promes hammered a free kick through the jumping defensive wall and passed a despairing Lodygin.

This time Zenit had no response and Spartak comfortably saw out the remainder of the game with Alvarado not being called into action again.

Zenit boss Hassan will be pleased with the heart and at times enterprise shown by his players but knows the result now ends any faint hopes that may have lingered of progressing, his opposite number Houston will be buoyed by the steel his side showed in the face of determined opponents to grind out a win that puts them level on points but in second place to CSKA on goal difference who they meet next week.

Match Day 6	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
CSKA Moscow	4	3	0	1	4	2	2	9
Spartak Moscow	5	3	0	2	7	6	1	9
Lokomotiv Moscow	5	2	2	1	4	2	2	8
Dynamo Moscow	5	2	2	1	3	2	1	8
Zenit St Petersburg	5	0	0	5	3	9	-6	0

Match Day 7 Fixtures – Weds 6^th April

Spartak Moscow  v CSKA Moscow

Dynamo Moscow v Zenit