This match was the final match played by CSKA and USSR national team goalkeeper Mikhail Yeriomin. Yeriomin was in a serious car accident the evening after the final and died at a hospital on 30 June 1991 from his injuries.[1]
All sixteen Soviet Top League clubs did not have to go through qualification to get into the competition, so CSKA and Torpedo both qualified for the competition automatically. The last year defending champions Dynamo Kyiv were eliminated administratively in the first round of the competition (1/16 final) by FC Tekstilshchik Kamyshin after winning their home game 7–1 (later changed to -:+).[2]
Previously these two teams met each other in the early editions of the competition on several occasions. However this was their first time and the last that they met in the finals of the Soviet Cup. Previously their contested each other four times in semifinals of this competition since 1944.