Despite the odds, Rubin Kazan and Dynamo Moscow have made the last four of the Russian Cup seeing off bookies’ favorites Lokomotiv Moscow and Zenit St Petersburg in their respective quarter-finals.
The first game of the day took place in Grozny. It had been rescheduled for the Chechen capital due to the unsatisfactory pitch conditions in Kazan. But despite losing home advantage the nominal hosts, who had only managed to score once in five official games after season’s restart, reduced the Muscovites to powder to win 4-0.
Gekdeniz Karadeniz was instrumental in his team’s success. The Turk scored twice on the night, including the opening goal in the middle of the first half, and was well backed by Aleksand Ryazantsev and Sergey Davydov in the second half.
Lokomotiv, playing at full strength, looked disjointed and didn’t create a single goal opportunity for the whole match.
Meanwhile, Zenit St Petersburg came up short in front of their home crowd. They were knocked out by Dynamo Moscow, the team they had destroyed, 5-1, three days ago in the Premier League. A penalty converted by Zvezdan Misimovic 20 minutes from time made the difference in St Petersburg.
Rubin now await the winner of the duel between Rostov and Fakel Voronezh, while either Terek or Volga will play Dynamo in the other semi.