Deafening failure in the Europa League

The match between the capital CSKA and Krasnodar in the framework of the 10th round of the RPL, the fans were waiting with great interest, because it will meet one of the main contenders for the future championship. Southerners and CSKA are three and four points behind the leading Zenit (which spent more on the match). Last season, “Krasnodar” twice beat CSKA (2-1 - away and 2-0 - at home), and in the last meeting the fate of a ticket to the Champions League was actually determined.

However, the disastrous performance of both teams in the Europa League, where they suffered painful defeats and conceded five goals, interfered in the pre-match hands. CSKA were defeated by the Ludogorets, and Krasnodar by Basel.

After this, it is difficult for any team to come to their senses and enter the field a few days later, but wards of Victor Goncharenko and Murad Musaev will have to do this. By the way, the role of head coaches in this situation will be extremely important: who will be able to quickly bring the wards to life and make them forget about unsuccessful games in Europe.

Unfortunately for the southerners, for them this is not the first such experience in the 2019/20 season. So, a few days after the defeat from Olympiacos in Greece, Krasnodar was to receive Lokomotiv at home. And in that game, Musaev’s team appeared very combat-ready and not only managed to recoup, having conceded a ball at the very beginning due to a blunder of Matvey Safonov, but also tried to tear out three points to the end.

Goncharenko’s still very young team will be much more difficult. For the current CSKA Moscow, such a deafening defeat in European competition is new, and the coaching staff will have to try to bring the players to life.

A difficult task for Goncharenko

It is worth noting that if Musaev has a sufficiently long bench at his disposal, then in CSKA there are minimal opportunities for rotation. Despite this, Fyodor Chalov and Ilzat Akhmetov remained in reserve. On the one hand, the army team suffered a major defeat, on the other, the leaders of the red-blue simply needed a rest before the most important match of the national championship.

Unfortunately for fans of the army, their team is not the first season covered by a real epidemic of injuries. Viktor Vasin, Zvonimir Charliya, Cedric Gogua, Georgy Schennikov, Kirill Nababkin, Alan Dzagoev, Dmitry Efremov, Ragnar Sigurdsson - these players will not be able to help CSKA in the most important meeting with Krasnodar. However, there is a possibility that Charlie will still have time to recover.

And in Moscow they really hope for him, because Khordur Magnusson and Ivan Oblyakov also earned disqualifications due to busting yellow cards. Thus, Goncharenko will have to smash his head over who to put in the center of defense in the company of Igor Diveev. 17-year-old Vadim Karpov in Bulgaria did not play very well, and after such a debut, the coaching staff will surely coast the young football player.

It is likely that Yaka Bijolu will have to go down to the center of defense. He had not played in this position before, but theoretically he could cope with a difficult task, given the anthropometric data of the Slovenian and his play in the selection. Personnel problems of CSKA make Biyol a real “universal soldier”.

If Charlie nevertheless returns to duty, then Goncharenko will get the opportunity not to leave the lineup with three central defenders. Otherwise, CSKA will have to act according to the two-central scheme, which did not bring the team success in the match of the starting round with Wings of the Soviets. And the fast and technical players of Krasnodar can all the more cause a lot of problems to the opponent’s experimental defense line.

As for Oblyakov’s loss, it is not so fatal, and his place on the field will most likely be taken by Kristiyan Bistrovich, who scored the winning goal against Tambov, and then went on the field from the first minutes in a meeting with Ludogorets.

Favorite Ari Stadium

Southerners in the upcoming match will definitely not help the disqualified Tonni De Villena. It can be assumed that in the capital he will be replaced by Daniil Utkin. Moreover, in the last meeting between the teams it was he who scored the winning goal against CSKA.

If the Dutchman does not play with the army, then Ari, who recovered from the injury, will surely be in the starting lineup, because in Switzerland he never went on the field, so he must come to the championship match in full readiness. Having overcome the consequences of an injury, a naturalized Brazilian scored four points for performance (2 goals + 2 assists) in two RPL matches - with Ural and Wings of the Soviets. The 33-year-old striker is still in great shape.

Ari will try to hit the gates of CSKA, especially since the army team are his “favorite” team. Red-blue he scored seven times. It is curious that as much he upset his former team - Spartak. And at the CSKA Arena, the experienced forward quickly got used to it at all. In the last two matches at this stadium, he not only scored red-blue twice, but also gave two assists.

In general, it is curious who Musayev will be put on the bench after the defeat from Basel. It can be assumed that the coach will provide rest to the same Safonov, so as not to psychologically overload the young goalkeeper. The specialist has already done so at the start of the season. For example, Matvey missed the return game with Olympiax. Another high-level goalkeeper Stanislav Kritsyuk is always ready to replace the pupil of the club.

But the central defenders, Alexander Martynovich and Uros Spaich, who made a huge number of mistakes in Switzerland, simply have no one to change Musaev for. Moreover, evaluating the actions of the Belarusians and Serbs in the match with Basel, one gets the impression that Chalov and his partners will have chances on Sunday.

Summarizing, we can assume that CSKA will not get on the rampage, but will play “second number” and as compact as possible to prevent breaks in its half of the field and in the defense line. “Krasnodar” will have to go forward, as it was in the match with “Locomotive”, and in such a situation, one goal can solve everything.