Translated material
Nowhere lower
Before the match with Inter, Spartak went down to the metro, and after - to the bottom of the standings
Having lost to Inter Milan in Moscow 0:1, Spartak lost all chances to continue fighting in the Champions League. After four matches, the “red-whites” have only one point. Too little to even fight for third place in the group.On the day of the match, the national team became closer to the people - Spartak players traveled to Luzhniki by metro. Realizing that, due to the terrible traffic jams in the capital, the team risked being late for their home Champions League match, the players, coaches and staff at Skhodnenskaya went down into the subway and arrived at the Vorobyovy Gory station. There the players boarded a bus and traveled the last two hundred meters to the stadium doors in comfort.
Surely for many Spartak residents the unexpected trip to the subway came as a shock. Some of them, perhaps, did not even suspect how it was there, underground. But the Austrian Stranzl, it seems, could not cope with the new impressions. In the very first minute of the match, the Spartak defender waved his foot past the ball, and the Austrian's unforgivable mistake cost the hosts a missed goal. Ibrahimovic and Cruz came out against Jeranek alone, played the ball with two touches, and Cruz calmly shot Kowalevski - his leg didn’t waver.
For Stranzl, by the way, this is not the first goal error in the Champions League. If you put them all together, it turns out that only due to the Austrian defender, Spartak lost a million dollars in prize money in this tournament. If the president and owner of Spartak Leonid Fedun understands the language of numbers best, then he should draw some conclusions. And his word, they say, means a lot when determining the composition.
After such a start, Spartak came to its senses only in the middle of the half. True, there was previously a promising free-kick near the Inter goal, but it was executed so poorly that it ultimately did not lead to a dangerous moment. But Boyarintsev simply had to equalize the score when he fell one-on-one with goalkeeper Julio Cesar from the left flank. But slightly pushed by the visiting defender, Boyarintsev could only awkwardly pick the ball into the goalkeeper’s hands. Another episode of the first half worthy of mention was Mozart's long-range strike, strong and quite dangerous. But it fell strictly in the center. Although Julio Cesar only managed to raise his fists, this was enough.
The second half should also have started with an Inter goal - Ibrahimovic missed the goal from two meters. However, this did not make things much easier for Spartak. The hosts still needed to score, but they had no idea how to do it. Something changed a little when Bystrov left the field due to injury. But the fuse of Kovalchuk, who replaced him, did not last long. But it was still clear: Inter had noticeably lost ground. Second halves are rarely successful for Mancini’s team. At the same time, however, the guests managed to carry out a couple of dangerous counterattacks. In both cases, Kovalevski saved.
And Spartak, realizing that it had nothing to lose at all, went forward with the whole team. Sometimes it worked out quite well. Boyarintsev's cross from the right flank made Julio Cesar nervous. Here is Pavlyuchenko's roundhouse kick, not strong, but effective. And then there was the real chance to score: Shishkin’s long-range shot hit the crossbar. And soon Kovac missed another opportunity, sending his header just above the goal.
By and large, this was the end of all the unpleasant moments for Inter. It's all over for Spartak - the chances of taking even third place in the group, which gives the right to continue fighting in the UEFA Cup, are very slim for the "red-whites".