Dynamo Moscow - Sibir Novosibirsk
Football: Russian Premier League
Saturday, 30th October 2010. Kickoff 15:00 CET

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Dynamo Moscow

Dynamo needs 5 straight wins if they're to stand a chance of finishing inside the European cup zone. These ambitions look quite utopist considering how inconsistent Blue-Whites have been performing recently.

Amongst the squad news: suspensions of regular defender Epurianu and defensive midfielder Ropotan, and returns of Kolodin and Cesnauskis. Dynamo is currently on a 2 match goalless streak having recorded 0-0 draws against Alanya and CSKA respectively.

Moldavian center back Epurianu has become a regular starter for Bojovic during Kolodin’s monthly lay-off with an injury. Now that the Russian seems to have fully recovered physically, thus he should make an anticipated come back and re-unite with Fernandez.

Another possible option would be sending left back Granat to the center and assigning Lomic to the flank. Bojovic has already used such disposition and it finished in an embarrassing 0-3 beating by Spartak Nalchik in front of home fans.

Ropotan will be adequately replaced by veteran Dmitry Khokhlov, who has recently decided to finish his career by the end of the year. Russian midfielder offers more creativity with unusual decisions and good passing skills than the Romanian international.

I also expect Andrey Voronin to remain at the bench as Bojovic prefers to use Lithuanian Cesnauskis on the left wing. In this case Dynamo’s attacks will not have such a "right-handed" view as they usually do when Cesnauskis is unavailable.

Sibir Novosibirsk

For some reason Sibir is playing defensive minded football in recent games, whereas every lost point moves them closer to relegation.

With 5 matches to go in the season, it is high time to forget about strategy and start playing straight-out football. Important right midfielder Zinovyev and center back Filipenko are injured, whereas Macedonian Sumulikoski is suspended.

Sibir is unbeaten in last 4 encounters. The sensational road victory against Rostov was followed by 3 consecutive draws against strong Rubin and Spartak, and in-form Krylia Sovetov.

Igor Kriushenko has finally managed to find the balance between attack and defense, which automatically improved reliability of the back line and efficiency of Sibir’s offensive units. But with time slipping away from Siberians it seems all these reforms are just too late.

Macedonian central midfielder Sumulikoski is an important player for team’s offensive moves. Ivan Nagibin will be used instead alongside Rojer Canas. Astafyev and Cizek will compete for the right wing of midfielder, while Rustem Galiulin has seized the left flank with his quality games.

Betting advice

Dynamo can still motivate itself for one certain match. The game against Premier League’s outsiders could see them perform as they did recently in Vladikavkaz vs. Alanya.

Sibir are no pushovers and are tactically well prepared. The last time Kriushenko’s team lost with more than 1 goal difference was back on the 14th of August. Since then every Sibir’s match has been a closely fought encounter.

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take Sibir (+1) @ 1.67 with Bet365