VFB Stuttgart striker Fredi Bobic was once again the key attacker against Lokomotiv Moscow as he scored the only goal in their 1-0 European Cup Winners Cup semi-final win in front of 22,000 fans in Moscow.

It was the Slovenia-born Bobic, now a member of the German national squad, who notched the winner in Stuttgart's 2-1 first-leg victory in Germany two weeks ago.

The 26-year-old Bobic, who has scored 12 goals in the Bundesliga, has now hit six in Europe this season. Bobic's clinical strike came midway through the first half. The Russians, seeking to overturn the first-leg deficit, were caught pushing up in numbers. Gerhard Poschner dispossessed Alexander Smirnov inside the Stuttgart half, threaded a pass to Nigerian Jonathan Akpoborie who found his strike partner racing through on goal to slot the ball past the advancing Ruslan Nigmatullin.

There was no way back for Lokomotiv, who had hoped to become the first Russian club to reach a European final in 22 years.

But there was bad news for the German side. Defenders Martin Spanring and Frank Verlaat were both booked by Danish referee Kim Milton Nielsen to collect their second yellow card of the tournament and will miss the May 13th final against Chelsea.

Coach Joachim Low was particularly disappointed about Verlaat's suspension. "Verlaat played superbly," Low said. "His absence will weight heavily on us." Stuttgart's last appearance in a European final was in the UEFA Cup in 1989 when they went under 5-4 on aggregate to a Diego Maradona-inspired Napoli.