madrid held by gritty lokomotiv published: wednesday 11 december 2002, 23.00cet
real madrid cf 2-2 fc lokomotiv moskva resilient lokomotiv stun holders madrid at santiago bernabéu.
fc lokomotiv moskva stunned holders real madrid cf by forcing a 2-2 draw at the santiago bernabéu when the two sides met in uefa champions league group c.
winless streak madrid, who lifted the trophy in glasgow last may, have now gone six champions league games without a win - and it would have been worse had raúl gonzález not rescued the home side a share of the spoils by bundling in a luis figo cross 14 minutes from time.
upset threatens vicente del bosque's side had looked in control once raúl had given them a 21st-minute lead, but goals from substitute james obiorah and thabo mnguni - making a sensational debut on the european stage - threatened to condemn madrid to one of the biggest upsets in the competition's history.
madrid dominate an away win had seemed so unlikely during the opening stages as the home side, who racked up 17 corners to lokomotiv's none, poured forward relentlessly. just eight minutes had gone when ronaldo watched his curling effort turned behind by lokomotiv goalkeeper sergey ovchinnikov. the corner was duly swung in by luis figo but madrid captain fernando hierro aimed his free header straight at the keeper. two minutes later claude makelele played ronaldo clean through on goal, but the striker could only clip the ball straight at ovchinnikov.
raúl opener lokomotiv's ruslan pimenov should have done better when he was played in with just iker casillas to beat. madrid immediately raced up the other end and made the visitors pay as raúl opened the scoring, latching on to a slide-rule pass from ronaldo and turning inside vadim evseev before squeezing the ball past ovchinnikov from an acute angle.
ronaldo rues a 25th-minute corner whipped across goal by figo presented ronaldo with a great opportunity to double madrid's lead - but it was clearly not the striker's night as he nodded a sharp header agonisingly wide. he failed to re-emerge for the second half - guti joining raúl in attack.
obiorah on target two minutes into the second half obiorah wriggled into the area on the far side before playing the ball off the shins of francisco pavón and stabbing a low shot underneath iker casillas to level the scores.
mnguni magic it took madrid a quarter of an hour to find their rhythm again. then zidane went close with a powerful downward header well saved by ovchinnikov and guti put two good chances wide before, entirely against the run of play, mnguni beat zidane and jinked into the madrid area and crashing a left-footed shot past casillas to stun the home supporters into silence.
late chances it took madrid just two minutes to restore parity, raúl somehow nudging the ball past ovchinnikov after the keeper had fumbled a cross from figo. but despite raúl going close and obiorah being stopped in full flow by the final whistle as he bore down on the madrid goal, neither side could find a winner.
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