Moscow "Spartak" in an imperfect condition approached the home match with "Leicester". Due to injuries, Rui Vitoria could not count on two representatives of the support zone at once - Nail Umyarov and Jorrit Hendrix, as well as forwards Georgy Melkadze and Esekiel Ponce. At the same time, the most serious was the loss of Maximilian Kofrie, who was disqualified for busting yellow cards. Recently, the Belgian has become an integral part of the team's defensive trio, and in the absence of Pavel Maslov, who continues to restore, there was no equivalent replacement for him. Instead of him, Nikolay Rasskazov or Ilya Kutepov could have come out, but in this formation, both did not feel very comfortable.
Of course, Vitoria had the opportunity to temporarily abandon the formation with three central defenders and switch to the 4-4-2 formation, which he actively used at the end of August. However, the Portuguese mentor managed to substitute in position, betting on Rasskazov. And that was a pretty risky step. The last time Nikolay started in the Europa League game against Legia and became one of the culprits of the defeat. In the first compensated minute by the main time of the meeting, he missed Ernest Muchi's run and allowed him to execute a lumbago on Lirima Castrati.
The rest of Spartak's roster was no different from the one that achieved a draw in the derby with Dynamo. The trio of attacks was made by Alexander Sobolev, Jordan Larsson and Zelimkhan Bakaev, and Roman Litvinov came out in the middle line in a pair of Roman Zobnin. The return of Quincy Promes to the application inspired the positive. Due to a knee injury, the Dutchman missed the match of the 11th round of the RPL, but on the eve of the confrontation with Leicester he was engaged in the general group.
As for the British, they sensationally beat Manchester United over the weekend, but Brendan Rogers still did not go without reshuffling. Timothy Castagne and Jamie Vardy stayed on the bench, while Luke Thomas and Patson Duck took the first place. And it was the native of Zambia who almost organized the first goal against the red and white. The forward took advantage of the misfire of the slipped Rasskazov and burst into the penalty area, but failed to distinguish himself.
Until a certain moment, Spartak's mistakes in defense were almost over. Yes, the hosts often very strongly pressed against their own goal and allowed the guests to hit from a distance, but neither Duck, nor James Madison, nor Yuri Tielemans could catch Alexander Maksimenko by surprise. The Muscovites' slenderness in defense was broken only once - after a corner kick in the 13th minute. The goalkeeper of the red and white played confidently at the exit, but the ball was immediately returned to the penalty area. Rasskazov missed a jerk by Johnny Evans, but the defender missed the goalie line.
By this time, Muscovites were already in the lead. Vitoria's wards preferred to act in a high-speed manner, and to get out of defense by throwing on Sobolev, who was dropping to the middle of the field. Yes, this method was not inventive, but it worked fine. So, during one of such counterattacks, Alexander again won the fight and performed a discount on his partner, after which he opened at the left border of the penalty area. Perepasovka with Bakaev did not allow reaching a rendezvous with Kasper Schmeichel, as a result of which the overall striker decided on a long-range strike. The ball ricocheted off Boubakari Sumare and dived into the near corner of the opponent's goal.
In a similar vein, the meeting took place until the end of the first half. Leicester tried in vain to hack into the opponent's defense, while Spartak, although mostly defended, tried to use the chances for quick counterattacks. At the same time, the defensive line was located quite low, and high pressure was practically not used. That is why it is surprising that one of the rare attempts to put pressure on the other side of the field led to an accurate shot by Jordan Larsson. Moses forced Chaglar Soyunju to make a mistake, broke through the edge and performed an accurate pass to the Swede. Tom could only beat Schmeichel.
In this regard, what happened in the period from 45 to 54 minutes was extremely unexpected. The Spartak footballers suddenly began to commit one individual defensive error after another, which led to three conceded goals. Rasskazov showed himself especially often with a minus sign. He missed his counterpart three times, and in the last episode his miscalculation turned out to be particularly remarkable. In the process of the opponent's counter-attack, Nikolai completely forgot about Duck, allowing him to break out to a rendezvous with Maksimenko and unimpeded to issue a hat-trick.
The red and white were in the role of catch-up and were forced to go forward with large forces, but the guests who shifted the emphasis towards defense could not create problems.
The appearance on the field of Quincy Promes and Mikhail Ignatov was called to revive the game.
But if Zobnin's replacement seemed logical, then Bakaev's departure was unexpected.
Zelimkhan was one of the most active on the field and took part in almost every attack of the hosts.
Finally, Spartak's chances for a draw were crossed out in the 79th minute.
Gigot again did not have time to return to the defense, Rasskazov tried to block the path of Madison, who was breaking through the center, but thereby left Daka alone again.
He entered the penalty area at speed and easily dealt with Maksimenko.
Sobolev's second goal four minutes before the end of regular time slightly cheered up the hosts' fans, but did not change the course of the game.
As a result, although Spartak left a positive impression of their performance in the first half, they still lost to Leicester.
Moreover, both in the number of strikes (11:20) and expected goals (1.27 - 3.09), and in the score - 3: 4.
The red and whites suffered their second home defeat in a row in the Europa League and dropped to third in the group C standings. Vitoria's charges have three points, but on Thursday they risk missing Napoli ahead.
To do this, the team of Luciano Spalletti needs to prevail over Legia at home.