Two injuries and blunders in defense
CSKA and Krasnodar started in the Europa League, to put it mildly, unsuccessfully. Russian teams conceded five goals from Ludogorets and Basel. After this, the army team and southerners simply did not have the right to lose points in the second round of the group stage, which they spent at home. Their rivals were the Spanish teams Espanyol and Getafe.
However, both teams at the start of the season in Example do not shine. “Getafe” is located only in 16th place in the standings, and “Espanyol” - in the relegation zone, in 18th. It was with the Catalans that Viktor Goncharenko's wards had to meet, who were determined, the more red-blue, unlike the opponent, they feel great in the domestic championship and, having won five victories, have already come first.
On the eve of the European Cup match, Goncharenko again could not do without a small rotation. Ivan Oblyakov got a respite, and Kristian Bistrovich took his place. But in all the other leaders of the army team this time were in the starting lineup.
Despite this, the first half turned out to be very difficult for the red-blue. Goncharenko's team possessed the advantage and the ball, but infrequently penetrated into someone else's penalty area. Of the truly dangerous moments, one can only recall the shot of Nikola Vlasic from outside the penalty area. An experienced goalkeeper Diego Lopez saved the goal from Espanyol in this situation. He confidently took the ball into his hands when Ragnar Sigurdsson hit with his head from a few meters after a corner was sent.
However, the guests had no moments at all. CSKA defenders calmly coped with not very active players attacking the opponent, and the ball almost did not reach Igor Akinfeev. In the first 45 minutes, Espanyol delivered only two hits - and not a single shot on target. In addition, due to injury, the team lost the main striker Honatan Kaleri.
Goncharenko did not do without replacements. Immediately after the break, instead of Igor Diveev, he released Cedric Gogua to the defense center. But, unfortunately, in the second half, the situation for CSKA only worsened. The team’s game disappeared altogether, and there weren’t enough speeds to open the defense of the guests. At the same time, the red-blue ones opened up more and more and allowed the opponent to flee in a counterattack. During one of these attacks, Viktor Campusano came face to face with Igor Akinfeev and shot into the far corner, but the goalkeeper saved his team.
Alas, in the middle of the half, he was also powerless. Herdur Magnusson did not have time to intercept the penetrating pass into the penalty area at U Lay, and he calmly threw the goalkeeper. Now CSKA had to score. Goncharenko released on the field Oblyakova.
Unfortunately, this did not work either. Moreover, in the time added by the referee, the army team missed a second time. And again, Magnusson’s grave mistake was not complete. This time, the Icelander actually threw the ball Pablo Piatti. The Argentinean tried to push the shell past Akinfeev, and he bounced back to Campusano, who calmly circled the goalkeeper and scored. So the army team suffered an extremely disappointing second defeat in a row and significantly complicated the task of getting into the playoffs of the Europa League.
In addition, after the game it turned out that the defenders Diveev and Magnusson were injured.
Angel's double and the lost chance of the “bulls” to save
After the failure of CSKA, Russian fans had their hopes in Krasnodar. Nevertheless, Southerners defeated the Tula Arsenal on Sunday and seem to have taken a step towards overcoming the crisis. Yes, and “Getafe”, to put it mildly, did not seem an impenetrable opponent.
Unfortunately, while CSKA at least owned the initiative in their match, Murad Musaev’s wards allowed the guests to act as the first number. The game did not stick at the hosts absolutely, and the fans could only whistle.
Therefore, the goal of Rodriguez Angel in the end of the first half has become absolutely logical. After losing the ball, Christopher Olsson in midfield, the Spanish team carried out a lightning attack, during which the attacker went to the strike position and calmly opened the score.
After the break, Musaev went all-in and threw forward Ari instead of the central defender Jon Houdni Fjoluson. The permutation led to the fact that “Krasnodar” began the second half quite actively. It seemed that the team could even recoup. Alas, at this moment Getafe managed to score the second goal, and Rodriguez Angel scored again. This time, the footballer competently opened in the penalty area when applying the standard and calmly sent the shell into the net. At the same time, Marcus Berg, who took care of him, simply did not follow his counterpart.
However, Krasnodar, to the credit of the team, did not give up until the last and soon managed to reduce the backlog to a minimum. Distinguished just replacing Ari. A naturalized Brazilian broke into the penalty area through the left flank, tried to shoot at Magomed-Shapi Suleimanov, and then he himself was the first to rebound.
In the end, “Getafe” remained in the minority after midfielder David Timor received a second yellow card for a rough game in midfield. After that, Krasnodar staged a real assault, the more the judge added five minutes. Dangerous moments had Manuel Fernandes and Berg. The first, using the pitch from the standard, threw not only the goalkeeper, but also the goal itself, and the Swede after the discount Ari did not manage to push the ball past the goalkeeper.
Thus, “Krasnodar” after CSKA suffered a second consecutive defeat in the group stage of the Europa League. Fans were unlikely to expect such a start from the Russian teams in the second most important European competition, especially at that moment when Zenit and Lokomotiv looked worthy in the Champions League. Now the southerners and army will have to make incredible efforts in order to break into the playoffs of LE. Otherwise, in the spring they will have to focus on RPL.