| CSKA repeated the UEFA Cup final Football has returned to Russia. Yesterday Moscow honored the winners of the UEFA Cup. There were nightly celebrations around the capital the night after the final, there was a meeting at the airport, but everyone who wanted to personally greet the army team came yesterday to Luzhniki, which for the first time in many years was filled to capacity. That evening CSKA met with its most important rival - Spartak. And here it was not so important for the army fans whether the “red-blues” would win this match or not. The main thing is to show that he is the first Russian winner of the UEFA Cup. But the celebration turned out to be full - Spartak was beaten with the familiar score of 3:1. This victory was recorded by the German Florian Mayer - the first foreign referee to officiate a Russian championship match.
The UEFA Cup itself could not be demonstrated at the stadium. According to the regulations, this could not be done before the match, but after the army team did not want to: you never know. So the presentation of the cup was postponed for several days - until the match with Zenit. But the day before, the trophy was demonstrated to Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the residence in Novo-Ogorevo, the head of the country, CSKA football players and coaches, as well as the country's top sports officials, once again remembered the final, examined the trophy and slightly violated the regime (see page 2), eagerly drinking a glass of champagne.
The record for attendance at Russian championship matches was set in 2000 during the meeting between Spartak and Lokomotiv. Then 65 thousand spectators came to Luzhniki. Yesterday's game had every chance to beat this achievement. But surprisingly, there were more Spartak fans. In order to somehow compensate for this advantage, CSKA forward Vagner Love went to the podium. The Brazilian could not enter the field due to disqualification, and signed autographs with great pleasure, causing a stir among his fans. The disgrace was stopped by a police sergeant who sternly reprimanded his subordinate for causing the disorder.
All the other players in the main CSKA squad were in the lineup, but only Ignashevich did not appear on the field. Maybe it was precisely this that was missing at that moment when Spartak opened the scoring. This goal turned out to be curious: the ball, having been cut off from Kovalchuk’s foot, hit Boyarintsev’s head and went into the goal. However, the army team has already managed to teach their fans that a goal against them does not bring their opponents much closer to victory.
Even in the first half, the CSKA players made it clear that for them, winning the UEFA Cup was not a reason to take time off from the championship games. Zhirkov also made this clear when, after a signature pass, he sent the ball into the crossbar. And then the army team did not let Spartak goalkeeper Kovalevski get bored. And after the break, he had more work - someone had to get the ball out of the net. The first time the Polish goalkeeper had to do this was after Aldonin's long-range strike. The unpleasant procedure had to be repeated a couple more times: after Vasily Berezutsky hit the target as usual after a free kick, and then after Ivica Olic went one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
“The players celebrated the victory in the UEFA Cup as it should, as expected, but today they were able to demonstrate professionalism,” Valery Gazzaev said after the match. - Yesterday the President of Russia congratulated us, and today we could not lose. Even if we didn’t have the strength today, we still had no right to lose.” Andrey VDOVIN |
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