The uprising of Spartak

On Thursday, Russian clubs opened the football season, starting with varying degrees of success in the 1/16 finals of the Europa League.

The first to take to the frozen lawn of the capital's Luzhniki stadium were the former Russian champion Rubin from Kazan and the Dutch Twente. This meeting was postponed three times - first to Moscow on an artificial field, which, due to weather conditions, would not turn into asphalt. Then, due to twenty-five degree frosts, the start of the match was moved from 21 o’clock, first to seven in the evening, then to 15:00.

In the morning, FIFA teams carefully measured the air temperature and, in the end, gave the go-ahead for the game to take place. As a result, the Kazan team, who attacked dangerously for two thirds of the match, missed two counterattacks in the final minutes and unexpectedly lost 0:2.

Closer to the night, Zenit, CSKA and Spartak began their meetings, which played with the Swiss Young Boys, the Greek PAOK and the Swiss Basel, respectively. Of course, the Russian clubs were clear favorites in each of the confrontations, but the negative experience of Rubin probably made the players and coaches of the teams think about what underestimating the opponent could lead to.

Zenit was the first to draw conclusions, opening the scoring through the efforts of Lombaerts. However, the St. Petersburg team quickly lost the initiative and eventually lost, unable to hold a draw in the last seconds, 2:1.

Following the current champions of the country, the army team distinguished themselves, who, even playing as a semi-reserve squad, did not experience any special problems - 1:0. The score could have been higher, but the red-blue scorers were still far from optimal physical condition, so they were able to score only once - Necid did it.

But Spartak made me happy. The Muscovites, demonstrating an absolutely incomprehensible game, conceded two goals even before the break. It seemed that everything was lost for Valery Karpin’s players that evening, but they unexpectedly changed.

The second half of the meeting was a benefit for team captain Alex, who, despite the injury, successfully assisted Dmitry Kombarov and Dzyuba, who squandered a number of other excellent chances. And already in stoppage time, the Brazilian passed the ball to Ananidze, who scored the winning goal.

The return matches will take place on February 22 (CSKA - PAOK) and February 24.