| Spartak and Torpedo advanced to the next round of the UEFA Cup Russian teams passed the first round of the UEFA Cup without losses. Torpedo defeated the Bulgarian CSKA in the 1/64 finals of the tournament only as a result of post-match penalties. Spartak also did not present any unpleasant surprises, although a 1:1 draw with the Danish Esbjerg can hardly be added to the list of achievements.
Next year, not two, but three Russian teams will participate in the UEFA Cup. However, it is difficult to call this an achievement of domestic football. The third, “extra” place was obtained due to a reduction in representation in the main club tournament in Europe. Now only one Russian team will participate in the Champions League, and that one will start from the second qualifying round. Thus, UEFA has put Russia on a par with Poland, Bulgaria or Slovakia, the total budget of whose leading clubs can easily exceed CSKA Moscow. But, for example, Ukraine, whose clubs did not waste rating points, retained two places in the Champions League. However, a successful performance of Russian teams in the UEFA Cup, where in the first rounds there are not very formidable opponents, which means it is easier to score rating points than in the Champions League, can help Russia regain its lost positions. This is what our clubs tried to do yesterday, although with varying degrees of success.
Of greater concern for the final result was the confrontation between Torpedo and the Bulgarian CSKA. The first match of Torpedo in Sofia left a double impression. The Bulgarian army team looked better than their opponents throughout the game, but the guests managed to achieve a 1:1 draw, which left Torpedo a good chance of advancing to the next stage of the tournament. These chances increased significantly after the Opera home team's striker opened the scoring in the tenth minute of the Moscow match. It seemed that Torpedo was about to increase its minimal advantage. In any case, in the first half the hosts had an undeniable territorial and game advantage, and there were many chances to score goals. However, CSKA snapped back several times, and once the ball sent by the Brazilian legionnaire of the army Souza hit the post.
In the second half, CSKA improved. But while devoting most of their strength to the attack, the Bulgarian team played inattentively on defense several times. As a result, mistakes had to be corrected at the cost of fouls. For two of them, which resulted in a yellow card, Yordan Todorov was sent off in the middle of the half. The army did not notice the loss of the fighter and continued to attack the Borodino gate. But the dangerous moments arose not due to the active actions of the guests, but to the unjustified mistakes of the hosts’ defense. Thus, goalkeeper Borodin gave the ball to the opponents several times, and full-back Jolovich was extremely inattentive to his duties. But despite all these flaws, it seemed that the Torpedo team would calmly bring the match to victory. However, the Russian team failed to hold out for a few seconds. Already in the added time, CSKA succeeded in attacking the center, which was completed by Dimitrov - 1:1 and extra time. For 30 minutes, the teams tortured themselves and the few spectators, and it seemed that only the goalkeepers had the strength to take the post-match penalties. Twice the CSKA goalkeeper took kicks from the 11-meter mark, but Borodin managed to accomplish this feat three times, and the reward for the Torpedo goalkeeper and his team was a pass to the next round of the UEFA Cup.
Spartak's task looked much simpler. And it’s not even about winning the first match with a score of 2:0. The Danish Esbjerg looked so helpless in Moscow that it was completely unclear how this team could make life difficult for Spartak. The Muscovites, in turn, also relaxed and did not tense up too much in the return match in Denmark. And as soon as Spartak managed to score a goal at the end of the first half, which was scored by Pavlyuchenko, the further game completely lost all meaning. To advance to the next round, Esbjerg needed to score four goals. The Danes scored only one. However, the Spartak team still found problems out of the blue. In an inconclusive match, their best striker Roman Pavlyuchenko received a red card. Andrey VDOVIN |
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