A snowy tale: Sobolev's goals and Selikhov's saves helped Spartak beat Napoli in the Europa League for the second time

If in the RPL "Spartak" disappoints its fans this season, then in the Europa League it shows quite acceptable results.

In the first four rounds of the group stage, the red and white sensationally beat Napoli on the road and took away points from Leicester and retained quite working chances of getting into the UEL playoffs, not to mention the Conference League.

To get closer to solving the problem, Rui Vitoria's wards needed to defeat the Neapolitans at home.

And the owners' chances of this were very high.

It's all about a real epidemic of trauma.

The team's top scorer Viktor Osimkhen, who suffered a fracture of his facial bones in a meeting with Inter, and the best assistant Lorenzo Insigne, who is recovering from a knee injury, did not come to Moscow.

Two right-wingers were also out of action at once - Matteo Politano and Adam Una, who tested positive for coronavirus.

Forced to miss the game and a pair of midfielders Diego Demme - Andre Zambo Angissa.

Of course, the Neapolitans can boast of a long bench, but it was not easy for Luciano Spalletti to cope with such losses.

Spartak, on the other hand, approached the opposition in almost perfect condition, except for Roman Zobnin.

Everyone had time to get used to the absence of Pavel Maslov, Georgy Melkadze and Esekiel Ponce.

But Roman Litvinov returned, having missed the last RPL match with Krasnodar due to disqualification.

Actually, the castling of Jordan Larsson on the young defensive player was the only change in the roster compared to that game.

The only thing is that Zelimkhan Bakayev was not even included in the application.

Fortuna accompanied "Spartak" that evening. No sooner had the game begun than the referee Clement Turpin was forced to appoint a penalty. Quincy Promes burst into the penalty area from the right flank, and Stanislav Lobotka knocked him down. It was only the 43rd second of the meeting. Alexander Sobolev, unlike Artyom Dziuba in the match with Malmö, converted the penalty confidently, spreading the ball and Alex Meret in different corners.

Quickly opening the scoring, the red and white did not cuddle up to their goal, but sought to meet the opponent in the worst case in the middle block, and in the best case, already in the opponent's half.

Mikhail Ignatov and Sobolev made up the first line of pressure, and Promes and Victor Moses helped them on the flanks.

It is curious that the Muscovites acted according to the scheme of four defenders.

The Nigerian rarely sat on the right flank of the defense, and this zone, as a rule, was closed by Maximiliano Kofrie, who was doing his job.

However, it would be strange if Napoli had no chance at all.

Although Spalletti missed many of the leaders, high-profile footballers such as Drys Mertens, Elif Elmas, Irvin Lozano and Andrea Petania played in the attack.

And when they managed to get into someone else's penalty area, the owners had a hard time.

Fortunately, Aleksandr Selikhov acted splendidly on the last frontier.

In the first half, he was remembered for three incredible rescues at once.

First, he made an amazing double save after Elmas hits, and then miraculously reacted to Peter Zielinski's strong shot from close range.

“Spartak” was much more careful about their moments and increased their lead in the 28th minute.

Moses rocked Mario Ruja on the right edge and delivered a perfect serve to Sobolev.

Alexander competently peeled off Kalidou Kulibali and struck with his head into the near corner without a chance for Meret.

So, the forward has issued the second double in the current LE season.

Twice he managed to upset Leicester, and the home game with the English team began according to a similar scenario.

Vitoria's charges took the lead 2: 0, but in the end were defeated - 2: 4.

This time, the red and white did not allow the opponent to quickly close the gap.

Before the break, the Neapolitans did not create any more chances and, in general, looked confused.

The owners acted boldly, calmly and with the proper level of aggression and dedication.

It was felt that the team was in great mood for the game.

Unfortunately, the second half turned out to be completely different from the first for Spartak.

Once again, under Vitoria, the red and white was enough for only one half of the match.

If, before the break, if they gave possession to an opponent, then they defended without panic, and on occasion were always ready to run away in a counterattack, then after they pressed against their own goal.

This was largely due to the condition of the players in the attacking line. Sobolev, Ignatov and especially Promes did not press so actively and allowed the Napoli defenders to make the first pass. As a result, too much work fell on Umyarov and Litvinov in the support zone. All the old sores of the national team immediately worsened. Ayrton on the left side could not cope with Lozano. Realizing this, the full-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo regularly began to walk forward, in the first half he practically did not cross the center of the field.

It was he who managed to close the gap in the 51st minute, taking advantage of Petania's neat discount. Fortunately, the officials canceled the goal due to an obvious offside position. This only provoked the guests. They continued to build up pressure and won all rebounds, preventing Spartak from organizing counterplay. Selikhov continued to help out, who, for example, pulled out a shell from under the crossbar after hitting Mertens.

However, after a couple of minutes, Alexander turned out to be powerless.

An attempt to leave their own half ended in loss, and the Neapolitans instantly organized a thrust through the center.

Left-back Mario Rui left Litvinov and Umyarov and made a pass to the right edge of the penalty area to Petanier.

In turn, the forward calmly performed a serve on Elmas.

An absolutely outright Macedonian struck his head in the style of Sobolev and hit the near corner.

At the same time, Ayrton did not have time for the episode and only watched Jikia unsuccessfully try to insure him.

Having conceded, “Spartak” could well have crumbled, especially since there was enough time before the final whistle.

However, to the credit of the red and white, they got together and managed to level the game up a bit.

Umyarov even had the opportunity to excel, but, having made a selection near someone else's penalty, he missed the target a little.

Vitoria made timely replacements.

Realizing that Ignatov was very tired, he threw Alexander Lomovitsky into battle instead.

Moreover, the latter went to the left flank, and Promes moved to a position under the attacker.

So the owners managed to close the "hole" at the edge.

And only later, Nikolai Rasskazov entered the game instead of Moses, who received a slight injury.

As a result, "Napoli" did not even manage to organize the final assault, although Turpin added five minutes to the main time.

I remember only the next blow by Elmas' head, which Selikhov coped with.

The final whistle of the Frenchman recorded the second victory of Spartak over the Italian grandee.

Although the red and white spent two different halves, they managed to retain the gained advantage and scored the most important three points.

This allowed them to come out on top in Group C. On Thursday, the head-to-head match in England will be played by their rivals Leicester and Legia from Moscow.

Well, Spalletti refused to shake Vitoria's hand after the final whistle.

This hardly upset the Portuguese, because another success in European competitions increased his chances of staying at the head of the capital's team.