Kuban Krasnodar 1 Swansea City 1
Swansea City were again pegged back by a late Kuban Krasnodar goal as Ibrahima Baldé's stoppage-time equaliser denied them a win in Russia.
Wilfried Bony had put the Swans ahead in the ninth minute and they looked set to move to the verge of a place in the knockout stages of the Europa League when their hosts had the defender Xandao sent off with 15 minutes remaining.
However, as had happened when Djibril Cissé struck a stoppage-time penalty in Swansea two weeks ago, they failed to claim all three points after Baldé beat Michel Vorm to a lofted pass and lifted the ball over the goalkeeper to equalise.
"I think the squad had a great reaction and in the first half we played some very good football," manager Michael Laudrup told ITV4. "You can look from the outside and say they scored in injury time but I think the circumstances from before were completely different.
“I understand the boys are disappointed but I said to them if we keep going like this with the same spirit and playing like we did in in the first half, we will have no problems.
“At Cardiff in the first half we dominated quite well but we lacked in the final third. I think today we looked much sharper, I think there were some good performances in there and that’s why I feel for the players that we didn’t win this game, because I thought they deserved it for the effort they put in in the first half.”
Swansea have now won just two of their past nine in all competitions, but they should have left the Kuban Stadium with three points after dominating the first half. Bony could have given Swansea the lead in the opening seconds, directing a powerful header towards the near post, only for Aleksandr Belenov in the Kuban goal to make a sharp save.
There was no reprieve for the hosts when excellent link-up play between Alejandro Pozuelo and Roland Lamah, who impressed in only his third Swansea start, teed up Bony. Lamah surged into the area and, when Pozuelo could not control, Bony took over to fire convincingly beyond Belenov.
Lamah and Nathan Dyer had chances to extend the lead, with the former dragging wide when played in by Jonathan de Guzman, and Belenov saving from the latter.
The failure to extend the lead almost proved costly as Cissé had a goal ruled out for offside and failed to control at close quarters, but Kuban’s charge was dented when Xandao saw red for a second yellow card.
However, Ivelin Popov’s ball into the area saw Baldé nip in ahead of Vorm to earn the hosts a share of the spoils and keep Swansea waiting to secure their spot in the last 32.
