| Spartak's European Cup series interrupted The capital's Spartak, in the return match of the 1/16 finals of the UEFA Cup, although it prevailed away against the Spanish Mallorca - 1:0, but failed to win back the handicap given to its opponents after a home defeat of 0:3. The trip to the Balearic Islands became for the team of head coach Italian Nevio Scala nothing more than another control match, akin to what the “red-whites” played in the off-season.
Having ingloriously stopped fighting for the trophy, Spartak broke its unique streak. Since 1980, he has consistently participated in European competitions. But now the “red and whites” will not be seen in the Old World for at least a year and a half. The fact that Spartak’s European campaign would be interrupted was known already after the team finished the previous championship in tenth place and dropped out of the Russian Cup. But purely theoretically, there was still a chance that the Moscow club would get a ticket to the next UEFA Cup by winning this tournament this season. No miracle happened.
“Mallorca” reacted to the second match in exactly the same way as “Spartak”, whose players were not particularly zealous on their home field. The outsider of the Spanish championship, trying to preserve the strength to survive in the class of the strongest domestic championship, did not send six players from the main squad to the meeting with the Russian club. And the main star of the team from the Balearic Islands, Cameroonian Eto'o, played only one warm-up period. Those who did take the field acted with coolness. And they weren’t even too worried when Spartak’s Samedov opened the scoring, and his teammates Kovtun and Khrman did not convert good opportunities to score.
Together with the current team, Nevio Scala leaves the UEFA Cup and the club where this mentor gained worldwide fame - the Italian Parma. The loss in a home match to the Turkish Genclerbirligi in the Apennines was regarded as a misunderstanding. However, in the return match the Turks proved the consistency of the result, defeating Parma with a score of 3:0. And even the removal of the main Italian goalkeeper Frei in the 34th minute cannot serve as an excuse for the defeat. However, this was the only success of Turkish clubs. In another Italian-Turkish confrontation, the overall victory went to the Calcio representatives: Roma managed to eliminate the handicap gained by Gaziantepspor in the first match.
But the biggest loss for the Turks was the relegation of one of the cult clubs of this country, Galatasaray. The modest Spanish Villarreal quite calmly defeated the “guests from hell” - 3:0. And Galatasaray coach Fatih Terim was so upset by the defeat that he immediately resigned. “If anyone is guilty, it’s only me. I don’t know what management will answer to my desire to leave. But I know for sure that the result was not achieved, and this is the main thing,” the specialist, who is called by no other name in Turkey, said angrily. like Fatih the conqueror.
Besiktas completed the picture of the bleak performance of the country's club representatives - the bronze medalist of the World Championship. The Istanbul club lost to Valencia, which, along with Liverpool and Inter, is considered by English bookmakers to be the favorites of the tournament.
UEFA Cup. 1/16 finals. Return matches. “Mallorca” (Spain) – “Spartak” (Russia) – 0:1 (first match – 3:0), “Genclerbirligi” (Turkey) – “Parma” (Italy) – 3:0 (1 :0), Debrecen (Hungary) -- Brugge (Belgium) -- 0:0 (0:1), Teplice (Czech Republic) -- Celtic (Scotland) -- 1:0 (0 :3), “Bordeaux” (France) – “Groclin” (Poland) – 4:1 (1:0). "Besiktas" (Turkey) -- "Valencia" (Spain) -- 0:2 (2:3), "Levski" (Bulgaria) -- "Liverpool" (England) -- 2:4 (0:2), Panathinaikos (Greece) -- Auxerre (France) -- 0:1 (0:0), PSV Eindhoven (Holland) -- Perugia (Italy) -- 3:1 (0:0) , Inter (Italy) - Sochaux (France) - 0:0 (2:2), Newcastle (England) - Valerenga (Norway) - 3:1 (1:1) , Rosenborg (Norway) - Benfica (Portugal) - 2:1 (0:1), Barcelona (Spain) - Brondby (Denmark) - 2:1 (1:0) , “Villayarreal” (Spain) – “Galatasaray” (Turkey) – 3:0 (2:2). Andrey VDOVIN |
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