The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
A mauling in Moscow
of the night on 82 minutes when he sclaffed his shot over the bar from a fabulous position.
But the home side weren’t finished and sub Aleksandr Sapeta barged his way through the United defence with seven minutes to go, showed some fancy footwork then lifted the ball over Cierzniak.
Sapeta then grabbed a fifth with just a minute to go and it was a shot from distance that once again gave the United goalie no chance.
It was a shame for the goalie to lose so many as one real plus from an otherwise grim night was his display.
He wasn’t at fault for any of the Dinamo counters and were it not for him the scoreline would have been much worse.
United will now aim to take out their frustration on city rivals Dundee when they next play in the Tannadice derby a week on Sunday. Attendance: 10,000 (est). Dinamo Moscow: Berezovsky, Wilkshire, Rykov (Schildenfeld 63), Fernandez, Lomic, Dzsudzsak (Bakkal 63), Yusupov (Sapeta 63), Semshov, Kokorin, Misimovic, Kuranyi. Subs not used: Shunin, Niakhaichyk, Noboa, Chicherin.
Dundee United: Cierzniak, Douglas, McLean, Gunning, Flood, Russell (Gardyne 78), Rankin (Armstrong 59), Daly, Ryan, Mackay-Steven, Watson. Subs not used: Banks, Millar, Dow, Robertson, Barrett.
Referee: Stefan Johanesson (Sweden). HOUSTON WENT on: “I have to put things into perspective as well and reflect upon the wealth and experience of the Russian side.
“I feel that if we can keep this team together over the next couple of years we can maybe build and learn from our European experience.
“Our naivety and inexperience in Europe showed up tonight.
“We gave Dinamo too much respect right from the start.
“But I was speaking to (coach and former captain) Paul Hegarty about his time and he said it took two or three years in Europe before the team he was part of did really well in Europe.
“Every season for us the team has changed dramatically.
“We are out of Europe now but we have to try to put together a good league season and look to have another go.”
Dinamo were f ired up and they had a positive reaction to the departure of their coach Sergei Silkin at the start of the week.
Houston added: “Something like that can work both ways but I think they got a lift from it.
“We did give them a lift as well, though, by conceding the early goal.”