Lokomotive - Dinamo 2-3

The main story of the match was the utilization of a high defensive line for both teams. Both coaches are tacticians with a football attitude based on how to approach the game. Slaven Bilic lined up a 4-2-3-1/4-4-1 with  Roman Pavlyuchenko as attacking midfielder with the goal to chase the opponents playmaker. Dinamo played an attacking match, relying on crosses form the wide side when Lokomotive was deep.

But both teams were dangerous playing counter-attacks: the key man for Lokomotive was Marques Bitencourt , who started off playing on the left side. Despite his defensive lackness, often exploited by Dinamo, Betancourt was an attacking threat as he  enjoyed so much space on the line. On the other side, when Lokomotive was attacking, they did it through the  flanks, often pushing up the line with both the full-backs at the same time. That left gaps open as Dinamo first goal showed. In fact, with Lokomotive building from the back and with the team spread wide, a ball was lost in the middle of the pitch and Dinamo's midfielders soon found Aleksandr Kokorin free to receive the ball higher up the pitch for an easy fast-break. On the modern era, pressing for 90 minutes was difficult to do; so Bilic's side opted for an optional pressing to do in some situations, as when the ball carrier was on the flank or with his back to the opposite's net. By the way, Lokomotive started the match scoring first. It was after a set piece in which Dinamo showed to have need to improve. In that situation, the headers line jumped off in the way to put Lokomotive's attackers in offside. But not all the members of Dinamo's team went off correctly so while some went off, others collapsed down, leaving a high amount of opponents onside.
As the second half started, Bilic changed his team shape by moving to a 4-4-2 bringing on Johnny Thomsen as second forward and taking off Roman Pavlyuchenko. That change and a different attitude made Lokomotive the attacking team of the second part of the game with Dinamo defending deepest. Another ball lost - the second of the match - during the build up, this time coming off a fast-break, produced Balazs Dzsudzsak's score. Dzsudzsak was a key player running up on the right, in a zone where Lokomotive showed some defensive lacks as pointed earlier. The same winning goal came from a play started on the right and ended with a cross from the same side. Although Lokomtive dominated the game trying to tie, its play was not quick enough to go over Dinamo's wall. With Dinamo sitting deep, Bitencourt wasn't a factor anymore and Bilic was forced to replace him with Victor Obinna. Petrescu's side was better defending as Lokomotive created no much clear scoring chances, and Dinamo was also able to take advantage from rivals' mistakes.