Commonwealth Cup: Big guns in charge

FC Spartak Moscow, FC Dynamo Kyiv, and FC Skonto all booked their quarter-final places in the Commonwealth Cup after convincing victories in the group stage on Sunday.

High profile
UEFA President Lennart Johansson visited the tournament on Sunday, thus re-instating the high profile of the competition, held annually in Moscow since 1991.

Bestschastnykh double
Spartak beat Moldovan champions FC Sheriff Tiraspol 6-1, Vladimir Bestschastnykh scoring twice to take over at the top of the tournament's top scorers table. 19-year-old Dmitri Sychev also scored in his second consecutive game for the Russian Premier-Liga champions.

Foreign players
Dinamo Kyiv were too strong for FC Shamkir, beating their Azerbaijani opponents 3-0 after outstanding performances by their foreign players. Hungarian László Bodnár opened the scoring only after 15 minutes, Belarussian international Aleksandr Khatskevich added another one in the second half and Goran Gavrancic's goal capped an emphatic win for Valerii Lobanovskyi's men.

Skonto on form
Latvian champions FC Skonto also enjoyed a 3-0 victory as they faced Georgian champions FC Torpedo Kutaisi. To add spice to the fixture, there were four Georgian players in the Skonto side for the match. Zurab Menteshashvili netted from Levan Korgalidze's cross to make it 1-0 with half an hour remaining, before Maris Verpakovskis and Aleksandr Eliseevs scored one each to secure a convincing win.

Tight affair
Lithuania's FBK Kaunas edged a tight affair with a 1-0 win over Tajikistani side Regar-TadAZ Tursunzade, while Estonia's FC Flora only managed a 1-1 draw against FC SKA PVO of Kyrgizstan. Russia's Under-19's beat Kazakhstan champions Zhenis Astana and Turkmenistani club Nisa Askhabad continued their winning streak as they beat FC Belshina Bobruisk 2-1.