Miracle at the Camp Nou, "murder" in Antwerp and the scalp of Manchester United: what was the debut season of Russian clubs in European competitions

The prophetic replacement of Kostylev and the decisive goal of Mashkarin

The main decoration of the European Cup season, historical for the country, is the victory of CSKA over Barcelona in the Champions League.

In 1991, the army team became the last owners of gold medals in the USSR championship.

After that, a number of leaders left the team: Dmitry Galyamin, Igor Korneev, Valery Broshin, Vladimir Tatarchuk, Dmitry Kuznetsov and others.

And head coach Pavel Sadyrin went to the newly created Russian team.

His place was taken by the ex-mentor of the youth team of the Soviet Union Gennady Kostylev.

Under his wing, he gathered many talented young football players who were well known to him: Denis Mashkarin, Valery Minko, Alexander Grishin, Dmitry Karsakov, Ilshat Faizulin.

And they suddenly managed to shoot.

In the first round, the Muscovites went through Vikingur without any problems.

However, their next opponent was the then undefeated Barcelona, ​​who won La Liga twice in a row and were the current trophy holders.

According to Grishin's memoirs, club president Vitaly Murashko announced immediately after the draw that the players would receive $25,000 for the passage of the Catalans - crazy bonuses for the early 90s.

Despite the fact that the hosts played the first meeting at Luzhniki with dignity and even achieved a draw (Chiki Begiristain answered Grishin's quick goal in the second half), on the eve of the return match, few believed in them.

For example, it was not even broadcast in Russia: neither on TV nor on the radio.

The fans learned about the stunning success in the morning from the news release.

Although at first, everything seemed to develop predictably.

Half an hour later, Barça took a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Miguel Angel Nadal and Begiristain.

A prophetic replacement from Kostylev helped turn the tide of confrontation: instead of Grishin, who did not get into the game, he threw 20-year-old Karsakov into battle.

As a result, just a few minutes later he gave an excellent pass to Yevgeny Bushmanov, who, with a rebound from the crossbar, reduced the gap and revived the intrigue.

Well, at the beginning of the second half, a football miracle happened.

First, Mashkarin, taking advantage of Karsakov's excellent serve from the corner, equalized the score with a headbutt in the fall, and then Karsakov himself closed Mikhail Kolesnikov's cross with his heel.

The blue-garnet ones had enough time to escape, but they, being in shock, were no longer able to upset Dmitry Kharin.

So Ronald Koeman, Josep Guardiola, Mikael Laudrup and Hristo Stoichkov flew past the group stage.

And local football fans, to their credit, gave a standing ovation to the young players of CSKA.

According to Kostylev, after a historic victory, he allowed his wards to celebrate it properly, but they proved to be professionals and did not touch alcoholic beverages with the exception of beer.

Poisoning in Marseille and offer to turn in the game in Berlin

The army team made it to the group stage of the tournament, but immediately faced a serious problem - the lack of a stadium in Russia that meets all UEFA requirements.

Just in that season, in connection with the transformation of the European Cup into the Champions League, they seriously tightened up.

In this regard, there was even a possibility of not admitting the red-blues to the next stage.

With faith in this, representatives of Barcelona arrived at the draw, not losing hope of taking the place of an opponent.

However, as Anatoly Korobochka, who was then the head of CSKA, said, at the event the Moscow team was represented by his friend Dieter Fitz, who said that the domestic team would hold home meetings in Germany.

The club in a special press release explained to the fans that at home they could only play at Luzhniki, but the stadium went on a winter break.

And the Grand Sports Arena was far from ideal then, for example, instead of chairs, spectators had to sit on wooden benches.

As a result, two nominally home matches, with Brugge and Marseille, took place in Berlin, and one, with Rangers, in Bochum.

Most of all I remember the meetings with the French team, which eventually became the owner of the trophy.

In the first confrontation, the army team created another sensation, breaking up with the grand world - 1:1.

At the same time, many years later it turned out: before the game, unknown people approached the representatives of Muscovites, including Kostylev, with a proposal to pass the match, but everyone refused.

Two weeks later, CSKA, already in Marseille, unexpectedly lost big to the opponent, conceding six unanswered goals.

And here, too, there was a scandal.

In the middle of the 2000s, the former defender of the hosts, Jean-Jacques Eidely, admitted that the opponent in France was deliberately poisoned.

Club administrators injected a certain substance into the bottles of the guests through syringes.

As a result, they did not feel well.

The coaching staff of the red-blues recalled that the wards really turned out to be far from ideal, and some even fell asleep on the bus on the eve of the meeting.

And in the last round, the Muscovites managed to slam the door loudly and directly influence the fate of the draw.

On the road, they broke up with the Rangers (0: 0) and helped Marseille climb to the first line and get into the final.

The army team eventually scored only two points, but the ex-football players of the team are sure that if it were not for the massive sale after winning the gold of the USSR championship, it could have performed much more worthily.

Plus, right in the course of the group stage, the main goalkeeper Kharin left for Chelsea, and defender Sergei Fokin went to Eintracht from Braunschweig.

Erroneous removal of Onopko and the picture fall of Chernyatinsky

That season turned out to be the most successful for domestic clubs, because in addition to CSKA, Spartak brought rustle in the Cup Winners' Cup.

Back in 1991, the red-whites stopped a step away from the decisive confrontation of the KECH, losing to Marseille, and two years later they reached the semi-finals of another European Cup.

On the way to the top four, Oleg Romantsev's wards were unstoppable.

They knocked out the Luxembourg "Avenir" (0:0, 5:1), the English "Liverpool" (4:2, 2:0) and the Dutch "Feyenoord" (1:0, 3:1).

After such an "Antwerp" did not seem like a serious opponent.

The Belgian team, which in 1993 took only fifth place in the national championship, looked unconvincing in KOC and with great difficulty passed Glenavon, Admiru Wacker and Steaua, without winning a single home match.

In addition, there were no stars in its composition.

The victory of Muscovites in Luzhniki with a minimum difference in the score thanks to a goal by Andrey Pyatnitsky further strengthened the confidence of the fans in the final success.

And after Dmitry Radchenko's goal, already in the tenth minute at Bosuelstadion, there was a feeling that Spartak could prepare for the final.

What happened next still reverberates with pain in the hearts of all participants in the meeting from the Russian side.

First, the hosts did not give up and quickly restored the balance in the long run.

Secondly, Jorge Koroadu, after the break, began to interpret all the episodes in favor of the hosts.

It became even more alarming when Dragan Yakovlevich brought Antwerp ahead.

And 15 minutes before the end of normal time there was a decisive episode of confrontation.

Andrey Ivanov dropped Alex Chernyatinsky in the penalty area.

The attacker immediately began to roll on the lawn, depicting incredible pain.

The referee did not see the moment, but after consulting with an assistant, he appointed a penalty and removed captain Viktor Onopko from the field.

The refereeing team simply confused the players.

Hans-Peter Lehnhoff calmly converted the penalty kick and the Belgian team went on.

The red-and-whites missed a unique opportunity to reach the final, and Romantsev years later called that meeting “the height of injustice” and admitted that he wanted to take the wards off the field.

The head of the club, Alexander Hadji, fully shared his position, expressing confidence that Koroadu deliberately “killed” the team.

However, there were other reasons for the defeat.

The coaching staff faced serious personnel difficulties.

Fedor Cherenkov and Vladimir Beschastnykh were serving disqualification.

Andrei Tikhonov, allegedly, did not have time to issue a passport.

And Ilya Tsymbalar and Yury Nikiforov, who moved from Chornomorets, played in European competitions for Odessa.

As a result, Andrey Gashkin and Vladimir Baksheev, who had little to no experience of performing at the highest level, had to be released to replace the young, who could not cope with the pressure.

Plus, the Muscovites trivially underestimated their opponent and after the first game they were sure of the final success.

According to Pyatnitsky, on the day of the return match, the players calmly walked around the city with their wives and bought in stores, not at all doubting that they would reach the final.

Their self-confidence ruined them.

For Andrei, a small consolation was the fact that with six goals he took second place in the race of scorers of the tournament, losing only to Chernyatinsky (7).   

Saves Podshivalov and slaps Talalaev

Not only Spartak, but also another metropolitan team, Torpedo, had a chance to knock out the English giant from the fight that season.

Moreover, if the red-whites had all the prerequisites for this, then nothing was expected from the black-and-whites in the confrontation with Manchester United in the first round of the UEFA Cup.

If the famous team of Alex Ferguson gradually gained momentum and became the champion of England that season, Yuri Mironov's wards did not please the fans and took only 11th place in the debut draw of the Russian national championship.

However, they managed to create a miracle and turn out to be stronger than the British top club with Peter Schmeichel, Andrey Kanchelskis, Denis Irwin, Bryan Robson and Paul Ince.

None of these stars managed to upset Alexander Podshivalov in a two-match confrontation.

He played a lot in the USSR Championship for Ararat and, in the prime of his life, moved to Torpedo to replace Valery Sarychev, who had left for South Korea.

As a result, meetings with Manchester United became the crowning achievement of the career of a native of Yekaterinburg.

In many ways, his efforts managed to keep the most important goalless draw at Old Trafford.

In Manchester, the goalkeeper made two amazing saves at once: first, miraculously parried Ince's shot at close range, and in the end, in a spectacular throw, he pulled the ball out of the corner after Danny Wallace's header.

On the old "Torpedo" named after Eduard Streltsov, Podshivalov also did everything in his power, for example, in one of the episodes he did not allow 35-year-old Robson to distinguish himself.

However, it is necessary to note the entire team.

Not losing on the road, the Muscovites believed in themselves and leveled the difference in the class with the highest dedication.

They themselves repeatedly could score.

So, I remember the moment when the experienced Sergei Tishkov in extra time gave a slap on the back of the head to 20-year-old Andrei Talalaev for another miss.

Everything was decided in an unforgettable penalty shootout.

It began for black and white is extremely unsuccessful.

Sergei Borisov failed to outplay Schmeichel, while Andrei Afanasiev missed the target.

Opponents realized the first two attempts, and the hosts were in a quandary.

At the most difficult moment, Podshivalov came to the fore again, parrying the shots of Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister.

Alexander himself calmly reacted to his exploits and after the final whistle he asked the journalists not to call him the hero of the match, highlighting the actions of all partners.

Unfortunately, in the next round, Torpedo's performance in the UEFA Cup ended, although Mironov's team spoiled the blood of another giant - Real Madrid.

After a crushing defeat on the road, the domestic team won a strong-willed victory at home with a score of 3: 2 thanks to the goals of the young Talalaev, Yuri Tishkov and Mikhail Murashov.

As for Podshivalov, he failed, following the example of many Russian football players of those years, to leave for a strong European championship.

In 1993, Alexander limited himself to moving to the Israeli Hapoel from Haifa, and then, like Sarychev, went to South Korea.

Simutenkov's masterpiece and Timofeev's mistake

A strong opponent was knocked out of the fight in the second round of the UEFA Cup and the capital's "Dynamo".

Torino in those years was considered one of the strongest teams in Serie A. And the tone in its composition was set by the unstoppable attacking trio of Enzo Shifo - Casagrande - Carlos Aguilera.

It is not surprising that no one believed in the blue and white on the eve of the fights with the Turin team.

In addition, in the summer they lost three leaders at once: Viktor Leonenko, Andrei Kobelev and Sergei Kiryakov.

The very young Omari Tetradze, Veli Kasumov, Dmitry Cheryshev and Igor Simutenkov were forced to set the tone in their game.

It seems that he didn’t tune in properly to the inferior opponent in the class and the Italian team.

But Muscovites in the first meeting forced the favorites to change their attitude towards themselves.

They demonstrated high speed and incredible dedication.

Guests fought for every ball and went to the end in all martial arts.

As a result, the owners' stars were lost on the field, including Shifo.

Tetradze and Kakhaber Tskhadadze reliably closed Casagrande and Aguilera and did not lose almost a single horse combat.

And Kasumov crawled in tackles near someone else's penalty area, not allowing attacks to start.

It is significant that the Dynamo team scored the only goal themselves.

After drawing the standard, Sergei Timofeev cut off the projectile into his own goal.

By that time, Gazzaev's wards were leading thanks to Kasumov's accurate shot shortly before the break.

They took the “accident” that happened calmly and nevertheless achieved a major victory.

Moreover, the decisive goal was scored by 19-year-old Simutenkov, who delivered a powerful shot into the near nine.

The Torino players were eager for revenge, but two weeks later they failed to show anything on the lawn of the terrifying quality of the Dynamo stadium.

The Italian team in such conditions had to utterly simplify the game and go astray, which was completely in the hands of the blue and white.

It did not stop them from keeping a goalless draw, even the removal of the same Simutenkov in the 53rd minute.

Unfortunately, in the next round, the performance of the capital squad in European competitions ended.

She failed with Benfica.

At home, the players of Gazzaev managed to make a comeback in the end and win back from a score of 0:2.

However, on the road they missed two unanswered goals, one of which was scored by the forward of the Russian national team Sergei Yuran.

But the careers of the conquerors of Torino were successful.

In January, Kasumov went to the Spanish Betis for €600,000. Simutenkov signed a contract with Regina in 1995 and played in Italy, Spain and the USA for ten years in total.

And Tetradze, having become the champion of the country with Alania, left for Roma.

Finally, in the 2000s, Gazzaev made a hegemon out of CSKA and won the UEFA Cup with the army team.