Ari's goal and removal, Chalov’s prestige ball: how Krasnodar won against Basel, and CSKA tied with Ludogorets in LE

Gazinsky in the start and a crucial penalty

September 19th became one of the black days of Russian football. Then “Krasnodar” and CSKA suffered a humiliating defeat in the Europa League from “Basel” and “Ludogorets”, respectively, with a total score of 1:10. Two months later, the teams had the opportunity to get even with the offenders for those defeats.

In addition, the southerners and the army team retained the chances of getting into the playoffs of the tournament. True, the wards of Viktor Goncharenko are rather nominal. In order to get the opportunity to take second place, red-blue required to beat Ludogorets at home with a score of 5: 0, which, of course, was almost impossible.

“Krasnodar”, however, two victories over “Trabzonspor” helped to join in the struggle for reaching the 1/16 finals. Moreover, even the victory over Basel did not help the southerners finally solve the main problem. “Getafe” (as it became clear later) beat “Trabzonspor”, so the team of Murad Musaev in the last round in any case needs to win in Spain.

Fortunately, Krasnodar managed to succeed. The match turned out to be extremely difficult for the hosts, especially Musaev decided to release in the starting lineup only Vanderson and Yuri Gazinsky who recovered from injuries. The last stands were especially warmly welcomed. Applause for the midfielder was heard at every meeting with the ball.

The first half, “Krasnodar” began very powerfully and on emotions literally pressed the opponent to the goal. Unfortunately, the team was once again ruined by a weak realization of the moments. Several times the owners beat past from slaughter positions. And once the defender took the ball from the “ribbon” after Wanderson had already thrown the goalkeeper and was preparing to celebrate the goal. This was the most dangerous moment in the first half of the meeting.

The most alarming episode was the damage to Gazinsky. Yuri unsuccessfully put his foot under the opponent’s blow and collapsed onto the lawn, clutching his knee. The football player left the field only with the help of doctors. It seemed that the midfielder could not continue the game, but he still ran up and came to his senses. There were no serious injuries.

If in the first half “Krasnodar” looked generally better than the opponent, then the second spent not too intelligently. The team completely stopped creating dangerous moments at the opponent’s goal and gave him the ball. Fortunately, the guests did not greatly disturb Stanislav Kritsyuk.

In the end, everything was decided by a penalty kick. 20 minutes before the end of Ari, on the edge of the penalty area, he competently set himself up under the sloppy tackle of Omar Aldarete and fell on the lawn, and the judge pointed to the “point” without hesitation. The penalty was surely realized by the naturalized Brazilian himself.

However, the ending was quite nervous for Krasnodar. For example, already in the time added by the referee, Afimiko Pululu, who replaced, struck his head into the far corner after a cross from the front, and the ball just missed the target. To this, Krasnodar responded with its moment. Ari ran to the rendezvous with the goalkeeper, but failed to beat him.

Unfortunately, after that the striker could not restrain his emotions and for some reason weighed Aldarete with the head slap, with which he was in conflict with the whole match. He in response grabbed Ari by the shoulder, after which he received a slap in the face. The referee, who happened to be nearby, could no longer forgive the footballer. The attacker received a second yellow card and will now miss the decisive match against Getafe. In it, as already mentioned, the "southerners" need only victory.

Unrealized moments of CSKA and successful substitutions of Goncharenko

But CSKA could not win, although the army team were eager to score three points. But, as in previous matches of the Europa League, they were prevented by a weak realization of the moments. CSKA most of the meeting took advantage and created the moment at the gates of “Ludogorets”, but could not score.

For example, Vlašić in the middle of the first half did not hit the target from ten meters after a lumbago of Mario Fernandez on the right. And soon the goalkeeper of the guests miraculously pulled the ball out of the far corner after the shot of Ragnar Sigurdsson. Finally, a couple of minutes after that the ball hit the defender of the Bulgarian champion in the penalty area, but the judge did not point to the “point”.

In the second half, CSKA continued to squander moments and as a result was punished for it. Ludogorets carried out an ideal counterattack, which Claudio Cesheru completed with an accurate strike from a few meters. So, an experienced Romanian striker has already scored the sixth goal this season in LE.

The army team recovered from Alan Dzagoev and Ilzat Akhmetov who recovered from a serious injury. They created the effective attack of the team. The tenth number was found in the penalty area by Akhmetov in a thin cutting pass, and he shot at free Chalov. This time Fedor did not miss his chance and excelled for the first time in the current European cup season.

Balancing the score, the hosts pressed the opponent to the goal in the hope of wresting a victory. Immediately Chalov managed to take a double, but the line judge rightly recorded his offside position. Despite all the efforts of the red-blue, they failed to tip the scales in their favor. CSKA lost the last chance of reaching the playoffs, which were already ghostly.