Translated material
Moments are a sea
But Spartak again failed to win the Champions League
Moscow Spartak still retained a small chance to compete for exit from the Champions League group. The Muscovites played a draw with Sporting - 1:1. But this draw will be more offensive than many defeats: Spartak deserved the first victory in the Champions League in the last six years.Immediately after the draw for the group stage of the Champions League, experts agreed that there are two clear favorites in Quartet B - Bayern and Inter. Spartak and Sporting were left to fight for third place, which would give them the right to continue the European Cup season in the UEFA Cup. But the Portuguese already in the first round pretty much confused the forecasters, sensationally beating the same Inter - 1:0. “Spartak” did not disappoint foreign fans, losing heavily to “Bavaria” - 0:4. The Red-White coach Vladimir Fedotov explained this defeat by psychological problems. But yesterday Spartak's nerves did not fail - their performance skills did.
The hosts started the match a little cautiously - they did not rush headlong into restoring the reputation that had been trampled two weeks ago. But the very first meaningful, albeit slightly frantic attack brought “Spartak” success. Boyarintsev, who won his place in the starting lineup with his scoring feats, again felt like a scorer. Having received the ball on the line of the penalty area, the Spartak midfielder shot so accurately that even in a high jump, Sporting goalkeeper Ricardo could not save his goal - 1:0. And it was only the 5th minute of the match.
But for the remaining time of the first half, Spartak felt like the master of Luzhniki. Young Shishkin acted solidly on the left flank of the defense, Bystrov collected a collection of fouls from the referee for his opponents, was active in the creation and defense of Titov, and Mozart was generally impassable in the center of the field, not forgetting to launch attacks.
So by the middle of the first half, the guests, in addition to conceding a goal, had already earned two yellow cards. And, in general, they got off easy: Sporting had plenty of chances to concede. For example, after a corner kick in the 12th minute. Or closer to the middle of the half, when Spartak carried out a sharp counterattack. Brought by some winds to the left flank, Bystrov made a pass into the penalty area, Pavlyuchenko cleverly missed the ball, and Titov was only slightly short of sending it into the goal.
If desired, the referee could also help Spartak. But Swede Hansson decided that the ball found the hand of the Portuguese defender after Pavlyuchenko’s cross, and did not award a penalty. But the hosts were not upset and ended the half with a bang with an excellent diagonal pass from Bystrov to Boyarintsev and a shot from the latter, which, however, Ricardo coped with. In short, Spartak played a very decent half. But there was still concern about the outcome of the match: in Munich, Fedotov’s team also played well in the first 45 minutes and failed after the break.
But, having rested, Spartak again went forward and was obliged to decide everything in its favor in the first minutes of the second half. Just look at Bystrov’s breakthrough along the flank, the pass to the center of the penalty area and Pavlyuchenko’s powerful strike. But here Ricardo played a match for the Spartak players, parrying this ball. Later, Kovacs, Mozart, and Kovacs again had chances to score... But Sporting, having coped with numerous attacks from the hosts, carried out their only one, which turned out to be a goal. The center of Spartak's defense failed, and Nanin, going one on one with Kovalevski, calmly beat the goalkeeper and sent the ball into the goal - 1:1.
After the return goal, the game fell apart into episodes, and Spartak was able to piece it together only in the final minutes. But it was too late, and Sporting took away a not-so-deserved draw from Moscow.