Lost points at the end of matches

The first round of the group stage of the Champions League and the Europa League is unlikely for Russian teams to score.

Zenit, Lokomotiv, Krasnodar and CSKA failed to win a single victory in 12 matches and parted with their rivals in the world in six meetings.

And if the failure of domestic representatives in the Champions League can be understood, then only two points scored by the army team in the League were unpleasantly surprised.  

At the same time, the Russian teams in the fall began to regularly skip after the 70th minute, demonstrating extreme fatigue.

If in the first round there was one such goal (in the passive of Zenit in the match with Club Brugge), then in the second round there were already six out of eight.

In the third, the situation was completely repeated.

Of the eight goals conceded, six came in the last 20 minutes of matches.

Petersburgers did not keep the victory in the meeting with Lazio, Krasnodar allowed Sevilla to turn the tide of the game, and CSKA conceded three goals from Feyenoord.

Other statistics in the second half of these matches turned out to be quite interesting.

For example, Lokomotiv after the break of the meeting with Atlético owned the ball only 35% of the time and delivered only one hit.

Zenit in the second half of the game also gave the initiative to Lazio and scored with one shot on target.

Finally, Krasnodar allowed Sevilla to deliver 12 shots at Matvey Safonov's goal, five of which were on target.

At the same time, the guests committed nine fouls at once against three of the opponent. 

A somewhat different situation developed in the second half of the Feyenoord - CSKA match.

The possession of the ball turned out to be equal, but Dick Advocaat's charges were more careful about their moments: out of five shots on target, three were effective.

Lack of quality off-season

Of course, not only Russian teams have to play two matches a week in the fall, but teams from the leading European championships do not experience such problems.

For example, 14 out of 20 teams from England, Italy, Spain, Germany and France are currently making their way to the playoffs in the Champions League.

At the same time, Real and Atalanta, occupying the third places in their groups, scored as many points as the rivals located on the second lines, and are inferior to them only in additional indicators.

And in the playoffs of the UEL, 10 teams out of 12 get into: all except for Nice and Real Sociedad.

But the leader of the Spanish championship after three rounds is on a par with AZ Alkmaar and Napoli (six points each). 

So far, only the French teams do not please their own fans, although in this country they did not finish the last season of Ligue 1.

However, not the best performance of PSG, who scored only three points in the first three matches of the Champions League, can be explained by the absence of a summer break, because the Parisians held the final of the Champions League last season on 23 August.

Other teams that were involved in European competitions in the summer are also experiencing problems.

Thus, Inter ranks last in the Champions League group with Borussia Mönchengladbach, Real Madrid and Dynamo Kiev.

Until it makes its way to the playoffs of the main European Cup and Atalanta, which in August played the Champions League quarterfinal match with PSG.

Finally, the reigning trophy winner, Bayern Munich, also had a tough time rolling into the new season and nearly lost to Sevilla in the UEFA Super Cup, as well as a massive 1-4 loss to Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga.

But teams from the continent's top leagues have far more powerful lineups.

So, Antonio Conte at Inter can afford to keep in reserve such players as Alexis Sanchez and Christian Eriksen.

Representatives of Russia in European competitions, with the exception of CSKA, cannot boast of a long bench and in the fall are experiencing serious personnel problems.

Also, unlike the representatives of the strongest championships of the continent, they are not used to such a busy schedule.

Indeed, in Europe, only in the national championship, teams hold 34-38 meetings per season (in the RPL - 30).

But in the summer and autumn, they were faced with the need to take to the field twice a week, and the coaches did not have the opportunity to lay a functional base for the players, since the pause between the RPL seasons was only 15 days.

For comparison, in the Premier League and Serie A, the players rested for 46 days, in Example - 53 days, and in the Bundesliga - 81 days.

It was more difficult only for the teams, which in August were forced to finish playing European cups, but they also got the opportunity to rest.

So, after the final match of the Champions League on 23 August, Bayern played the first match of the new season only on 18 September - almost a month later.

The hardest burden on Russian footballers

At the same time, by the beginning of November, only six to nine rounds were played in the leading European championships, while in the RPL - 13. Thus, the Russian teams in the national championship played twice as many matches than in Italy and Germany, in addition, having remained without pre-season training ...

And the teams not performing in European cups were forced to play two matches of the Cup of the country.

In England, seven rounds of the national championship and two rounds of the League Cup have now been fully played.

In Spain - eight rounds Examples (the cup has not started yet).

In Italy - six rounds of Serie A (the strongest teams will start in the cup only in January).

In Germany - six Bundesliga rounds and one cup round.

And in France - eight rounds of Ligue 1 (the cup so far does without teams from the elite division)

For comparison, Zenit has played 17 matches in all tournaments to date, while the last rival of St. Petersburg's Lazio has only nine.

Krasnodar 18 and Chelsea 12. Bayern played 15 games between August and early November, while reigning Europa League winner Sevilla 14. 

Thus, it remains to admit that the main reason for the failures of Russian teams in European competition is banal fatigue.

The players remaining without a pause between seasons play two matches a week for almost five months.

Unsurprisingly, muscle injuries are on the rise under these conditions.

Unfortunately, there is no reason to believe that the second round of the group stage of European competitions will be more successful for domestic teams.

In the time remaining until the end of the year, in addition to three matches in the LE and the Champions League, they will have six meetings in the RPL.

In addition, in November, the Russian national team will have three games at once.

That is why the fatigue of the leading players will only accumulate.

In addition, Russian teams traditionally show not the best results in November and December.

In this regard, Leonid Slutsky's phrase that, "saving this season, we may lose the next one" turned out to be truly prophetic.