Mirzov’s double, Bakaev’s excellent transfer and inconspicuous Mamaev: how Spartak beat Rostov at the tournament in Qatar

Different times and the first match of Spartak of the year

Fans of Spartak with great interest were waiting for the game with Rostov, because it was the first of the year for the red and white, because the team did not hold control meetings at the Abu Dhabi training camp. In addition, the red and white, probably, were not averse to taking revenge from an opponent for a devastating defeat in Moscow in early December - 1: 4. And in the Cup of the Premier Match in Austria in the summer, Valery Karpin's wards were stronger.

However, Valery Georgievich himself convinced before the next game with the former team that the result did not matter to him. As a result, Rostov began the tournament in Qatar with a defeat. At the same time, those gathered in the stands of the Aspir Center witnessed two completely different times. The first half, in fact, passed in midfield. Teams did not often threaten each other's gates, but Rostov still looked a bit more active.

In the second half, Spartak acted in the manner that Domenico Tedesco loved, with counterattacks. “Rostov” possessed the ball more, but allowed a lot of marriage on the other side and in the center and gave the ball to opponents than they enjoyed using it. This is not surprising, because after the break the fast-paced Maxim Glushenkov, Zelimkhan Bakaev and Reziuan Mirzov left the Moscow team. In the yellow-blue field, on the contrary, there were several very young players who had a hard time.

Unexpected hero and Sobolev on the podium

As a result, Mirzov was a real discovery of the meeting. Fans of Spartak are used to the fact that Reziuan acts exclusively on the left flank, but in Doha Tedesco released him to the center forward position, and it worked.

It’s not even that Reziuan scored twice, having run away from the opponent’s defenders twice and easily outplayed the third goalkeeper of Rostov Yegor Sedov, but also how competently he acted near someone else’s penalty. The football player clung to the balls qualitatively and dropped them to the oncoming partners. Well, to escape to the free zone and beat the opponent one-on-one for Mirzov was never difficult.

As a result, Reziuan spent the best game for Spartak and, most likely, convinced the coaching staff that he was able to come to the forefront in matches when the red-white ones have free zones in the alien half. In meetings with predominantly defending teams, Alexander Sobolev, leased from Wings of the Soviets, is more useful. By the way, he didn’t get into the application for the game, since he had only recently arrived at Spartak’s location and watched the match from the rostrum.

Promising youth of Spartak and Schurrle injuries with Baburin

It is curious that both coaches during the break completely changed the composition of their teams. In such circumstances, a large number of young performers got a chance. And the boys from Spartak used it much better. Moreover, the two youngest players who went to the training camp with the foundation proved to be excellent - Nikita Bakalyuk and Dmitry Markitesov.

The first started the match at the base with the promising No. 11 on the back and composed a duet in the supporting zone with Ayaz Guliyev. Nikita acted confidently over the years and was remembered by a couple of quality interceptions. Sometimes he was great at predicting the actions of such masters as Pavel Mamaev and Matias Normann. After the break, Markitesov took a place in the center of defense with Ilya Gaponov and did everything in his power to ensure that there were practically no dangerous moments at the gates of Artyom Rebrov. The only goal for Rostov was Dennis Hadzhikadunich at the very end of the meeting.

It is also worth noting Glushenkova, who gave the assist to Mirzov in the episode with the second goal scored. True, sometimes Maxim overexposed the ball and more experienced partners asked that he boldly hit on goal. And for the first goal, Reziuan should say thanks to Bakaev, who cut out the ideal pass for him with exactly such force that the projectile could not be intercepted by the defender.

The youth of Rostov looked more modest. In the first half, defenders Danila Vedernikov and Mikhail Osinov did not cause problems, but the players who appeared on the field after the break were invisible at best. And the 18-year-old central defender Yevgeny Cherkes was very difficult in the fight against Mirzov, Bakaev and others.

Of the experienced players, a few words should be said about Mamaev, who returned to big football. In the first half, he took a place in the center of the field, but in general was not particularly noticeable. Partners didn’t play the game through him as often as Paul would have liked. More active in front looked opornik Normann.

In summary, the second match of the tournament in Qatar turned out to be rather ambiguous. Teams expectedly did not show prohibitive speeds. It was obvious that both teams are far from ideal form. Unfortunately, again there were injuries. At the very end of the first half, Andre Schürrle left the field limping, and right after the resumption of the game, Yegor Baburin, who was replaced, received an injury. His place was taken by the young Sedov, who missed just a minute after entering the field.