Russia v Slovenia

Football: The path to next year's World Cup is barred by Slovenia, Russia learned yesterday afternoon. Guus Hiddink's team will play in Moscow on Saturday November 14, with the return match in Ljubljana on November 18. The winners of the two-legged tie will qualify for the tournament in South Africa next summer.

Bykov on top

Hockey: CSKA came up against former coach Vyacheslav Bykov - and went down 3-0 to his new Salavat Yulayev side.

The Moscow team failed to match up to a tough test against one of the pre-championship favourites, conceding a goal in each period in Ufa. Earlier in the week they overcame Moscow Region's HK MVD on penalties after a hard-fought 3-3 draw.

Dinamo took swift revenge for a 5-1 home humiliation at the hands of divisional leaders SKA, beating the Petersburg side 4-3 last week. Andrei Khomutov's side trailled 0-2 after the first period, but hit back through Jiri Hudler, Linus Omark, Denis Denisov and Dmitry Shitikov.

The Blue-and-Whites have three home games this week, against Sibir Novosibirsk (Tues., 7:30 pm), Amur Khabarovsk (Thurs., 7:30 pm) and Metallurg Novokuznetsk (Sat., 5 pm)

Spartak's bright start appears to be fading after back-to-back road defeats at Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod (4-2) and Dinamo Minsk (3-2) before Monday's match with Atlant Mytishchi.

They will hope for better things at Sokolniki against SKA (Wed., 7:30 pm) and Severstal (Fri., 7:30 pm)

Winning start

Basketball: CSKA, under the guidance of new coach Yevgeny Pashutin, made a winning start to their Russian Superleague season beating Lokomotiv-Kuban 55-48 in their opening game.

CSKA begin their European campaign on Wednesday night away to Marrussi of Athens.