Host round

In the central match of the round, after several defeats in the
European Cup and the Russian Championship, Locomotiv Moscow outplayed
CSKA Moscow 1:0, showing that the team is able to win. For Caucasian
teams the 20th round was rather unlucky. Regional teams always play
badly in away competitions. Spartak Nalchik defeated the outsiders of
the championship, Krylya Sovetov from Samara. Terek Grozny played in
no way inferior to Dynamo Moscow, but they didn't manage to use all
the favourable opportunities and were defeated 3:1 by Dynamo. After
the game they filed a complaint against the referee, Igor Yegorov,
over his decison to disallow a goal in the 59th minute, but there is
no point in blaming the referee. Anzhi Makhachkala was defeated by
Rostov 1:0. It seems as if the team, having completed the task for the
year – to stay in the league, is just waiting for the end of the
season. The only Caucasian team to score in the round was Alania from
Vladikavkaz. In the game with Sibir in Novosibirsk they hadn't a
single attempt on goal, while the Sibir players created plenty of goal
chances, yet didn't manage to score. Sibir played perfectly, but
suddenly Alania scored in the 90th minute, with a goal by substitute
Collins in the third minute of stoppage time crowning a sensational
victory for the Vladikavkaz team. Now Sibir is under threat of
relegation, while Alania's table position is rather comfortable.
Georgy Saralidze. Especially for VK