| Valery Gazzaev won his first victory in the Champions League The army team continues its journey in the Champions League. With great difficulty, breaking the resistance of the Baku Neftchi, CSKA entered the third qualifying round of the tournament. And although the victory over the champion of Azerbaijan with a score of 2:0 is not a great reason for joy, for CSKA it is now the most important thing. And on August 7, on his 50th birthday, army head coach Valery Gazzaev can relax a little.
This was Gazzaev’s first victory in the Champions League, albeit in a qualifying match. Before this, the coach of Alania and CSKA had never managed to beat anyone in the main European tournament. And all the defeats, without exception, were extremely offensive. What about Alania in 1996 from the Rangers with a total score of 3:10, what about a year ago from the Macedonian Vardar. But sooner or later victory had to come to Gazzaev. At least according to probability theory.
After the first match, which ended with a score of 0:0, the Neftchi players were somewhat discouraged by the result. In Baku they were waiting for CSKA itself, the champion of Russia, the richest club in the post-Soviet space, the owner of Olic, Jarosik, Gusev, the mysterious Wagner Lowe and so on, so on, so forth, to come to them... Proud Azerbaijanis prepared to lose, but to do it with their heads held high head. But that was not the case. The army team did not offend both Neftchi fans and football players, leaving behind a slight disappointment in Baku. So, having arrived in Moscow, the Azerbaijani players did not bother themselves with the upcoming match, but visited the capital’s shops, bought tracksuits there, met with numerous relatives, friends and acquaintances, and at the same time walked around the city at night. In general, we decided not to differ from our other compatriots coming to the capital of Russia.
In the week that has passed since the first match, CSKA had time to properly prepare for the return match. And it seems that Valery Gazzaev, according to tradition, relied on psychological readiness. The army team hasn’t entered the field with such an attitude for a long time. From the first minutes, a flurry of attacks fell on the Neftchi gate. In the opening of the match, the Muscovites had to score at least three times. The real chance was missed by Semak, who found himself alone right in front of someone else's goal. However, the ball from the captain of the “red-blues” hit above the crossbar.
The guests were allowed to come to their senses only in the 20th minute. And they carried out a couple of dangerous counterattacks. But before the break, the army team again firmly took control of the initiative. Jarosik scored, Olic fought, Gusev crossed - a familiar picture when CSKA needs to score. But the guests were lucky. We were lucky to such an extent that the Neftchi goalkeeper kicked the ball sent by Semak from the goal line.
After the break, the unlucky captain was replaced, and Wagner Lowe appeared on the field - $7.5 million in an army T-shirt. But at first it was not CSKA that became more active, as was to be expected, but Neftchi. Twice the army goalkeeper Akinfeev had to seriously enter the game, and if the visitors had scored, CSKA would have had to say goodbye to the Champions League once again.
But everything worked out, and the owners, realizing the seriousness of the situation, moved forward again. And in the end, the efforts of Gazzaev’s team could not but be crowned with success. Berezutsky's cross was intercepted by Gusev in a jump. Having opened the scoring in the 68th minute, the army team calmed down slightly, and when Vagner Lowe scored a goal four minutes later in his first match, all questions about whether CSKA would advance to the next round disappeared by themselves. True, if the forwards had converted a few more chances, the army team could have reached the next stage more impressively.
Glasgow Rangers are already waiting for them there. And the second team of Scotland is not the champion of Azerbaijan. Andrey VDOVIN |
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