Gaich's debut goal, Vasin's unsuccessful game and Akhmetov's return: how CSKA drew with Wolfsberg in the Europa League

Gaych's successful exit

CSKA Moscow, not without losses, approached the first match in the current Europa League.

So, defenders Mario Fernandez and Georgy Schennikov, as well as flank striker Arnor Sigurdsson, did not fly to Austria for the game with Wolfsberg.

One of the leaders of the Russian national football team passed a positive test for coronavirus in early October, after which he never went to the field, and his colleagues had not yet had time to recover from injuries.

In addition, Vadim Karpov was not included in the application, having received severe head injuries in the confrontation with Dynamo.

In a meeting with the Austrians, Karpov's place in the top four was taken by Herdur Magnusson, but Viktor Goncharenko was not limited to one change.

The middle and attacking lines of the army have also been rotated.

Chidera Edzhuke and Fyodor Chalov were on the bench, and Nair Tiknizyan and Adolfo Gaich came out from the first minutes.

It is noteworthy that the Argentine previously only once appeared in the starting lineup (in the game against Zenit).

Already in the fifth minute it became clear that Goncharenko guessed right with the decision to release Gaich at the start.

The oversized striker took advantage of his first chance and opened the scoring with his goals for CSKA.

The Argentinian received a pass from Nikola Vlasic a couple of meters from the penalty area and sent the ball into the far corner with a billiard shot.

Wolfsberg modern football

Thus, the army team already in the very opening secured an advantage in the score and came close to confirming the status of the favorite of the meeting.

Thus, Wolfsberg was not only ten times inferior to CSKA in terms of the cost of the squad (€ 13.75 million - € 138.2 million), but also looked extremely unfortunate at the start of the season in Austria.

In four matches of the Bundesliga, the "wolves" suffered three defeats and with three points settled on the ninth line in the standings.

Nevertheless, the hosts acted rather bravely and in the first half they were superior to the guests in all game aspects.

Ferdinand Feldhofer's charges did not hesitate to act as the first number and after the first 30 minutes had the ball more than 60% of the time.

In addition, they pressed well and did not hesitate to shoot on goal.

Even if Igor Akinfeev was forced to enter the game only once, the blows were extremely unpleasant.

At the same time, Wolfsberg was clearly aware of CSKA's problems with the full-backs and concentrated their attacks on the left flank.

Christopher Wernitznig and Michael Lindl regularly tried to break into Viktor Vasin's zone, but until a certain time Muscovites managed to cope with these raids.

Vasin's unsuccessful performance

Nevertheless, it was from the zone of the right full back that the return ball was organized into the CSKA goal.

The slow-moving Vasin lacked speed, which allowed Wolfsberg to be twice in the opponent's penalty area within 15 seconds.

But if the breakthrough of Sheiku Dienga was not fraught with danger, then Dejan Yovelich's run threatened to concede a goal.

The forward rented from Eintracht Frankfurt was already ready to close the canopy from the flank when Victor held him by his shirt and gave the referee a reason to award a penalty.

Lindl confidently outplayed Akinfeev and restored parity.

As a result, in the first half Vasin allowed "Wolfsberg" to earn a 11-meter, received a yellow card and was marked with only one ball tackle and one won horse single combat.

At the same time, only 17 of his 28 transmissions became accurate.

As a result, the worst score among all the participants in the match according to WhoScored (5.8).

Apparently, Goncharenko was also extremely dissatisfied with Vasin's performance as a right-back and replaced the veteran during the break.

Instead, he was replaced by nominally central midfielder Alan Dzagoev, and defensive midfielder Konstantin Maradishvili went to the defense.

Also, Tiknizyan, who played on the opposite side, left the field, and Ejuke was called upon to disperse the guests' attacks.

Offensive problems

Nevertheless, the substitutions of Goncharenko, although they helped CSKA to correct the situation in defense, did not contribute to the improvement of the combination game.

Yes, in the 56th minute, Edjuke and Vlašić organized a cool attack for two, but the Nigerian could not upset Alexander Kofler - all that remained was to hit the target, but the blow was extremely inaccurate.

By and large, the dangerous moments at the Wolfsberg goal ended there.

The most dangerous of the blows was struck by the replacement Fedor Chalov.

In the 65th minute, the forward opened in the penalty area and tried to shoot outright, but hit the defender.

At the same time, the Austrians, although they attacked much less often, were much sharper.

The same Yovelich and Michael Novak had excellent chances, but either the performers lacked accuracy, or Akinfeev acted great.

The ending was remembered for the abundance of marriage in the performance of programs and the long-awaited return of Ilzat Akhmetov.

The last time the midfielder entered the field was on March 9 in the RPL match with Rostov, after which he recovered from shoulder surgery.

True, he failed to bring serious benefits to the team.

And nine minutes before the end of normal time, Vlašić went to the bench, giving way to Kristiyan Bistrović.

Although the Croat played the role of the chief designer of the guests' attacks, he can hardly count this meeting as an asset.

Nicola looked rather tired, often lost the ball and made mistakes in passes.