MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti) - The...
Rubin, the surprise 2008 champions, and CSKA Moscow had already secured two of Russia's three berths in Europe's most prestigious club competition before Sunday's games kicked off, but Dynamo, lying in third, needed a point to make sure that Urals side Amkar would be unable to leapfrog them.
Zenit, meanwhile, in fifth place, had already resigned themselves to missing out on Champions League soccer after drawing their previous game 1-1 at Amkar, but were desperate for the three points to remain well-placed to take one of the two UEFA Cup spots on offer.
The Zenit vs Dynamo match also saw two intriguing individual stories, with the St. Petersburg club's record signing, Danny, facing his former club. The Portuguese international left Dynamo in August after Gazprom-controlled Zenit paid the $44 million buy-out fee stipulated in his contract. Danny had been with the Moscow club since 2005, and has a Cyrillic 'D' for Dynamo tattooed on his shoulder.