The thirst for revenge of Krasnodar and faith in the miracle of CSKA: what to expect from Russian teams in the Europa League

The progress of Krasnodar and the return of Gazinsky

The group stage of the Europa League started for Russian teams you can’t imagine worse. “Krasnodar” with CSKA Moscow in two starting rounds suffered two defeats. However, then the southerners began to intensively correct the situation. Two consecutive wins over Trabzonspor allowed them to return to the race for trips to the playoffs.

In the fourth round, wards of Murad Musaev will try to take revenge from Basel for the defeat in September. Then the Russian team conceded five unanswered goals and did not realize a lot of moments. This defeat became for Krasnodar the largest in European competitions and one of the most painful in the history of the club, along with the loss in St. Petersburg in 2011.

From the moment of the first face-to-face meeting, Basel only confirmed its high class, gaining seven points in the next three rounds. In the Swiss Championship, the team was doing well, as evidenced by the fight for gold with the Young Boys. True, at the weekend, wards of Marcel Koller unexpectedly lost to Servette and allowed the opponent to go on the edge.

In turn, Krasnodar beat Arsenal 2-1 on Sunday and finally interrupted the four-match series without victories in the RPL. Now the team is set to take three points in the Europa League. At the same time, the coaching staff understands that the away meeting with Getafe in the last round will be decisive. However, the Russian team is still not worth losing points, because the Spanish team will meet with the unmotivated Trabzonspor.

“The result may be different, but everything will be decided in any case in Madrid. Much depends on the mood of the team and what will happen on the field. All this can affect our game in Spain. Tomorrow's match is in any case very important, we want to get to the European spring. We hope to take a step towards this goal. We believe that the fans will help us with this ”, - quotes the words of the“ Krasnodar ”coach Sergei Matveev“ Championship ”.

However, the big problem for Krasnodar will be the loss of Manuel Fernandes, who was injured in Tula and certainly will not enter the field on Thursday. But finally recovered from a serious injury to the collarbone Yuri Gazinsky.

“I feel great, gradually getting in shape, my shoulder is no longer bothering. As for the match in Basel, of course, I watched and experienced it. The game did not work out as we wanted, another major defeat happened. I can’t say that on that day the team didn’t have enough of me, as a whole we didn’t succeed. But the score was not for the game, and now we have a chance to take revenge, ”said the player before the match.

The expectation of the first victory from CSKA and the absence of injuries

In a much worse position on the eve of the match with Ludogorets was CSKA. Unlike Krasnodar, the army team suffered three defeats in a row in the Europa League, and then only got a draw in an away match with Ferencvaros, although they had some good points in order to take the victory from Budapest.

Now, in order to break into the playoffs, red-blue requires a real miracle. Firstly, they need to get six points in the two remaining meetings and count on the misfires of competitors, and secondly, score at least five unanswered goals against the Ludogorets goal and hope that at home two weeks later the Bulgarians will play a draw with the Hungarians .

Russian fans remember very well how unsuccessfully the first match was with the reporting opponent for CSKA. Then the team of Viktor Goncharenko went on a break, winning 1-0, but in the second half he missed five times. Opponent enjoyed the inexperience of 17-year-old Vadim Karpov, who spent his debut match in adult football. Since then, the defender has ceased to worry and settled into the base.

“In terms of coaching, CSKA is a little better. But we came to the first match in Bulgaria with personnel losses. Many guys fell out, there was an experimental attack group. I hope we play better on Thursday. Alan Dzagoev is ready for tomorrow's game. At least we come up with better feelings than in September, ”Goncharenko assured.

And in October, the army team fell into a protracted peak. In all tournaments, they suffered four defeats and did not win a single victory. However, in recent years, the position of CSKA began to slowly improve. The team with difficulty, but beat Sochi with Wings of the Soviets and climbed to third place in the RPL standings.

Now the red and blue intend to win in the Europa League. In the end, the team, which last year beat Real Madrid twice, simply does not have the right to end the European Cup season without victories. In addition, the army team, even if they do not perform a miracle and do not enter the playoffs, can replenish the piggy bank of Russia in the UEFA odds table, where the country has already de facto lost sixth place and the third representative in the Champions League.

An additional advantage for the army will be the complete absence of injured. They are approaching a return match with Ludogorets in close proximity to the optimal squad. Even Dzagoev recovered, who took part in the last two RPL games.

“We need to rehabilitate ourselves and the fans. We will try to do this, to lose with this score, of course, is not permissible. But Real Madrid was also inferior to Barcelona - 0: 5. Viktor Mikhailovich will provide us with the necessary information, and we will do everything to take revenge. There are such matches that the opponent flies. We had moments, but it didn’t. This is football, this happens, and there is nothing to be done, ”Dzagoev emphasized before the match.