Spartak use Moscow metro for Inter match

Spartak Moscow players had to revert to an unorthodox way to reach the stadium for their Champions League match against Inter yesterday.

The Russians almost missed the start of the game after being stuck in traffic on their way to the Luzhniki Olympic stadium and had to use the Moscow underground to get to the arena.

It proved their undoing as Julio Cruz struck just 58 seconds into the match and Inter held on for a 1-0 victory.

Spartak coach Vladimir Fedotov blamed the notorious Moscow gridlock for his team's bad start to the match.

"As you know we got stuck in traffic and had to take the metro to the stadium," he told Russian television after the match.

"I must thank the metro people for letting us use it for free.

"I was also afraid that we would lose some of our players there because most of them probably have never used the metro before and could have got lost there. I had to chase after everyone and make sure no-one was left behind," Fedotov said.

"We were running late, thus we didn't have a proper warm-up and it all contributed to our poor play at the beginning.

"Unfortunately, we paid dearly for our mistakes."