Horta's double, Bakayev’s prestige goal and missed points: how Spartak flew out of the Europa League

Old roster and decisive battle

The match “Spartak” - “Braga” for the Russian teams ended the qualification of European cups, which in general was not very successful. Arsenal stumbled in the Europa League on their first rival, Neftchi, and Krasnodar failed to break into the Champions League group stage, although it went through Porto.

Now everything largely depended on Spartak, because the red-and-white opposed the Portuguese team, namely, Russia was fighting Portugal for the sixth position in the UEFA odds table, giving the right to enter three clubs at once in the Champions League. While Russia retains its place in the top 6, but the pursuer at the start of the European Cup season was able to seriously reduce the gap.

Thus, the confrontation between Spartak and Braga turned into a decisive factor in many respects. In case of victory of the wards of Ricardo Sa Pinto, the Portuguese received a significant advantage and left Russia without another military unit. The success of the team of Oleg Kononov, on the contrary, gave a serious advantage to our country.

Moreover, the defeat of Spartak away a week ago was largely illogical. Being on a good move, the domestic team played on equal terms with the opponent, but in the end they “sank” and conceded one goal. And the defender of Muscovites Andrei Yeshchenko even called a possible crash in the battle with “Braga” a disaster.

A few days later, the red-and-white won a third consecutive victory in the RPL and broke into the group of championship leaders. True, Jordan Larsson and Gus Til, who had already upset Wings of the Soviets, could not take part in the return match with Braga. Despite the absence of a couple of newcomers, Kononov at the pre-match press conference assured that he “knows how to beat Braga.” Sa Pinto in response called Spartak "a team without weaknesses."

And the starting lineup of the red and white turned out to be absolutely predictable and completely repeated the roster for the first game. “Braga”, on the other hand, surprised specialists and experts a lot, putting up the country's championships against “Lived Vicente” on a Sunday match. But in Moscow, the well-rested players were among the 11 starting ones.

🔴⚪ The composition of the red-and-white for the second leg of the playoff round of the Europa League!

Injuries to guests and the failure of the first half

Spartak started the game actively, as befits a team that needs to play a handicap, but Braga quickly returned the ball to its control. Red-white was not without difficulty given an exit from his half of the field. The first half-moment at the gates of Lima Mateus was created by Reziuan Mirzov. Midfielder burst into the penalty area on the left flank and shot directly into the hands of the goalkeeper.

After another ten minutes, George Dzhikia shot dangerously from outside the penalty area, but Mateus was back in place. However, in the middle of the half, Spartak finally managed to really push the opponent to the goal. Wards Kononov actively transferred the ball from flank to flank and loaded it into the penalty area. In addition, great strained defense Esekiel Ponce.

It was he who missed the most dangerous moment of Spartak. After an amazing pass, Andre Schürrle striker removed the defender, but missed the target - more precisely, another opponent stood in the way of the ball. Immediately Samuel Gigot after filing a corner almost sent a shell to the net.

The ball seemed to be brewing. In addition, Braga lost two football players at once in the first half because of muscle injuries, Wilson Eduard and Victor Tormen. But even without this, the guests, as soon as possible, lay down on the lawn and pulled time. After another simulation on the field, a massive brawl almost even began.

And in the end of the half, the guests scored two goals at once, and both times scored Ricardo Horta.

The goals of the guests were very similar. They caught red and white on a counterattack and delivered Orte's shell, and he already sent him to the net. First, he delivered a great blow to the far corner from under Andrei Yeshchenko, and then he took advantage of the rebound. After this, the Spartak fans could only hope for a miracle, because the red-and-white required to score four goals.

Substitutions from Kononov and Schurrle miss

Following the results of the first half, Kononov decided to make one substitution and sent Soltmurad Bakaev to midfielder instead of Mirzov on the left flank. For Zelimkhan's younger brother, this match was his debut in European competition.

And almost immediately, a fresh winger created a sharpness. He broke forward on the left edge and performed an excellent cross on the Schürrle mark, but Andre from the most advantageous position struck higher.

Fill in Spartak, and perhaps the intrigue could have revived, but this did not happen, and the red-and-white continued to move forward more by inertia without much faith in the possibility of a miracle, however, it was really hard to believe in it.

The hosts continued to mainly take the ball to the flanks, where the Bakayev brothers played, but could not come up with a final good pass into the box. Perhaps that is why for the last half hour Kononov threw into the battle the forgotten old-timer of the team, Jano Ananidze. However, clinging to the ball from the Georgian was also not very good, sometimes he frankly did not understand the partners.

But Braga sometimes organized equally dangerous counter-attacks and missed several opportunities to bring the matter to a rout, although on the whole it operated in an energy-saving mode. It is understandable that the guests were completely useless to spend extra energy and strength in this situation.

But in the end, with the release of another fresh football player, Nail Umyarov, Spartak managed to seize the initiative and create a couple of moments at the opponent’s goal. The most dangerous just missed Janot. After lumbago eshchenko from the right flank of the Georgians from the center of the penalty hit, it seemed, for sure, but the goalkeeper saved his team.

And in the 89th minute, the wards of Kononov still managed to score a prestige ball, and Zelimkhan Bakaev scored. After a successful bounce, he confidently shot the target from a few meters.

Unfortunately, it remains to be noted that Spartak flew out of the Europa League absolutely on business. If the team is doing well in the RPL, then Kononov’s wards have failed in European competitions.