Ponce's debut goal, Bakaev's double and Shyurrle's unrealized penalty: how Spartak snatched the victory from Tuna in the Europa League

Fear of a new failure and the "village" team

The new Eurocup season began for Russian clubs not too well. First, Arsenal lost to Neftchi twice with a total score of 0: 4, and then Krasnodar suffered a disappointing defeat from Porto in the debut match in the Champions League, missing in the penultimate minute.

The next to start at the international level was to be reconstructed on the go Spartak. At the same time, the rival Thun, who took fourth place in the last season of the Swiss championship, became the rival of the red-and-white. However, the Russian team was the clear favorite of the confrontation. On the side of Oleg Kononov’s wards there was also a transfer cost. An eloquent fact - the entire composition of Tuna, consisting of 28 players, costs less than Spartak paid for Guus Thiel - € 16.5 million against € 18 million.

However, fans of the capital's team could not relax anyway, because the red-and-white in recent years have suffered many sensational defeats in European competitions. “Legia”, “St. Gallen”, AEK - all these teams knocked out Spartak from the fight in the Europa League even before the stage of the group stage.

The defeat from the team from Cyprus three years ago turned out to be especially painful. Then, on the road in the first match, the Russian team achieved an acceptable effective draw - 1: 1, but lost at home with a minimum score and flew out of the European competition. That failure in the end was worth the work of Dmitry Alenichev.

The confrontation with Thun is in many ways similar to that duel with AEK. Firstly, Spartak, as then, is in the process of perestroika, and secondly, it will again start playing in the LE with the third qualification round. So, in the event of another failure, sad conclusions came up on the topic of Kononov’s further fate.

However, the coach himself hardly remembered the match three years ago. By the way, in the starting lineup of the team there was no place for star newcomer Andre Schurrle - he remained in reserve. But Til and Jordan Larsson will not be able to help Spartak in the qualification, since they have already played for other teams.

In general, the roster of red and white compared to the Dynamo derby has changed only in two positions: Nikolai Rasskazov took the position of Andrei Yeshchenko on the right flank of the defense, and Alexander Tashayev replaced Reziuan Mirzov on the left flank of the attack.

Two goals of Spartak and playing in the classroom

The start of the match was not the best for Spartak. The ball of the red and white did not hold at all, and they allowed a large number of marriages. To some extent, the Arena Tun artificial turf was also to blame for this, on which guests regularly glided.

Fortunately, the hosts failed to score in this difficult section for Kononov's wards, although they had a slight advantage. Perhaps the most dangerous moment in the tenth minute was missed by Nikki Havenaar. After a corner kick, the defender hit with his head from a few meters almost certainly, but the ball went higher.

And in the middle of the first half, red and white unexpectedly managed to open an account. However, they should thank the goalkeeper of the rival Guillaume Febvre for this. Having played at his goal, he gave an inaccurate pass and actually gave the ball to Mirzov. Reziuan instantly burst into the penalty area, where he fell, but the shell bounced exactly to Ponce, who immediately struck into the near corner and opened his personal account in Spartak.

Now, “Tun” was forced to go forward, which turned out to be only in the hands of the Russian team. Kononov’s wards, not wasting energy, quietly settled in their half of the field and, on occasion, carried out dangerous counterattacks.

As a result, one of them was effective in the 29th minute. The team’s fast attack started with a left hand to the same Mirzov, who redirected the ball to the center to Dzhano Ananidze. The Georgian, in turn, completed the transfer to the right to Bakayev, who, having beaten the defender, from outside the penalty area struck a magnificent blow into the far corner. For him, this ball also became the first in the “Spartak”.

Subsequently, in the first half, no interesting events took place. Tuna players generally had the advantage, but were infinitely far from the goal. The defense of Spartak controlled everything that was happening and did not let the opponent into the penalty area.

The terrible start of the second half and the character in the end

However, “Spartak” would not have been “Spartak”, if in the second half he would not have arranged problems for himself. It seemed that the red and white should calmly bring the matter to victory, but instead they, together with the opponent, organized a real thriller. However, the “Tun” came out of the locker room with a fighting spirit. In addition, midfielder Matteo Tosetti very successfully entered the game on the right flank, through which many of the team's attacks began to pass.

As a result, already in the 52nd minute, Tuna managed to reduce the backlog to a minimum. Maksimenko coped with a dangerous shot from the penalty, but could not do anything with finishing off from Nias Hefti. At the same time, the partners for some reason did not manage to cover the opponent.

Having missed, “Spartak”, instead of holding the ball, clung to its own goal, and the hosts, driven by the fans, staged a real assault. Maksimenko even tried to pull time, for which he received a yellow card.

But this ward Kononov did not help, and soon they missed the second ball. This time, Ayrton made a mistake and allowed himself to be robbed near the penalty area, and the Tuna player instantly served on Simon Rapp, who sent the projectile directly to the far corner. Maksimenko in this situation could not save his team.

Kononov immediately threw the world champion Schurrle into battle, sending the tired Ananidze to rest, and this replacement paid off. The German immediately began to cling to balls in the alien half, which helped Spartak move the game away from its goal. And in the middle of the inning, a fresh football player earned a penalty. Schurrle burst into the penalty area and competently substituted for the foul of Havenaar who had a very bad match.

Andre himself undertook to execute a penalty kick in the hope of scoring a debut goal for Spartak, but failed to realize it. The striker seemed to have struck exactly in the corner from his left, but Fevre managed to save the team and thereby rehabilitated for a productive error.

But a little later he corrected for an unbeaten penalty and Shurlle. It was he who managed to become the author of the assists to Bakaev in a situation with a winning goal. This attack began with a classy selection of Rasskazov in midfield. Then the German dragged the ball along the flank and made a perfect cutting pass on the move to Zelimkhan, who sent the ball between Fevra's legs and touched and made a double.

In the end, “Thun” made an attempt to organize a final assault, but “Spartak” survived and won a major victory. Let the team once again almost fail in the European competition, at the right time they managed to get together and achieve the desired result. It is gratifying that the first goals for the red-white were scored by Ponce and Bakayev, who had an excellent match. And Schürrle, despite the unrealized penalty, significantly revived the game, and ultimately helped the red-and-white squeeze the unyielding “Thun”.