Dinamo lose shoot-out with Sheriff

FC Sheriff are through to the UEFA Champions League play-offs after a penalty shoot-out triumph at NK Dinamo Zagreb.

As in the first leg in Moldova, the sides finished locked together at 1-1 after 90 minutes – Vladimir Volkov's opener for the visitors cancelled out by Sammir's penalty early in the second half. There was still nothing to separate the teams after the additional 30 minutes and 16 penalties when Dodô hit the post for Dinamo and substitute Artiom Haceaturov made him pay by converting to complete a 6-5 shoot-out success for Sheriff.

Caution had been the watchword before Volkov broke the deadlock with a surprise 16th-minute strike after a rapid Sheriff foray. The Serbian picked up possession on the edge of the box, ran unopposed into the area and found the left corner of the net with with ease.

Dinamo responded by upping the tempo and had three excellent chances to equalise before Sammir did just that, the penalty awarded after Igor Bišćan was brought down. Although the rest of normal time was even, the Croatian champions were dominant in extra time and would have won had Vladislav Stoyanov in the visiting goal not made brilliant stops to deny Sammir and Miroslav Slepička.

So to penalties, which included a streak of four misses on the trot after two initial conversions. The decisive miss was Dodô's, leaving Haceaturov to extinguish Dinamo's chances of progressing.