Translated material
Dry residue
Sporting helped Vladimir Fedotov spend the old year in peace
Spartak saved the whole season in the last match. After the victory in Portugal over Sporting (3:1), a not very successful year for the “red-whites” turned into almost a triumphant one. If we strictly summarize this season, then the bottom line is that Spartak did not concede to CSKA in any way - in the standings of the Russian championship the silver and gold medalists have equality on points, and in Europe in the spring both clubs will play together. Everything turned out so well that the team’s head coach Vladimir Fedotov, after Spartak’s last match in Lisbon, promised to celebrate this success with champagne: now all talk about his early retirement should finally fall silent.If you erase from your memory all the previous games of Spartak this year, and leave only the match with Sporting, then you might think that Fedotov’s team deserves at least a place in the playoffs of the Champions League, and not a modest participation in the spring part of the Cup UEFA. In the first half of the first half, the Portuguese, who had convinced themselves that something like a calm friendly match awaited them with a team that had already gone on vacation, were unpleasantly surprised by the proposed speeds. Immediately the left flank of Sporting's defense could not withstand it, from where Bystrov organized two quick goals.
The first of them can be recorded on an agent cassette and taken to superclubs in Europe. Bystrov, breaking into the penalty area, threw the ball back to Iranek, whose shot hit the crossbar. But the first to receive the rebounded ball was Pavlyuchenko, who sent it into the stack with a falling kick - 1:0. We had to wait about ten minutes for the second ball. And again Bystrov was the author of the assist. The midfielder sneaked to the right post of Ricardo's goal and carefully threw the ball over the goalkeeper to the other flank, where Kalinichenko could only put his head up - 2:0.
“We watched Sporting’s game against Benfica and saw that they had problems on the left flank,” Muscovites head coach Vladimir Fedotov explained the nuances of the setup after the match. - That’s why we initially set Bystrov up for attacking actions. Today he was almost the second striker.”
However, neither the second striker nor the first - Pavlyuchenko - scored any more goals in this match. But in the time remaining before the break, Sporting managed to reduce the difference in the score. The mood of the Spartak team immediately deteriorated. Moreover, they all probably remembered that their team, having a good first half, often concedes in the second. And the hosts really started very actively after the break. “We had big problems at the beginning of the game. We knew that a win or a draw would allow us to continue participating in European competitions, but as a result, we almost immediately had to recoup,” explained later the actual head coach of Sporting, Paulo Bento, who is prevented from taking an official post by the lack of a license. — A two-goal gap is extremely difficult to overcome. Having reduced the gap in the first half, we started the second almost the same as on Saturday against Benfica, we tried to control the game, but we missed the counterattack too easily.”
This counterattack took place only a few minutes before the final whistle. Until this moment, both Sporting and Spartak could have easily changed the score. After an unsuccessful discount, his goalkeeper had to foul Jeder dangerously close to the goal. Bystrov ended one of his attacks with a header; he tried to single-handedly decide the outcome of the match, but when he got to someone else’s penalty area, he fell there. However, the most dangerous moment was created by the hosts - Liedson's header hit the crossbar of the Spartak goal, which was defended by Zuev in this match. And only then the Muscovites carried out the same counterattack that Bento recalled. He finished it off with a shot into the near corner from Boyarintsev - 3:1.
Thus, Spartak interrupted its winless streak in the Champions League, which consisted of a record 22 matches for this tournament. “All's well that ends well,” Fedotov was naturally pleased and moved on to summing up the results. - The season is over. We took second place in the championship, scoring the same number of points as CSKA. At the same time, we scored the most. As for the Champions League, we were in a difficult group and performed well, qualifying for the UEFA Cup.”
So, if you believe Vladimir Fedotov, then Spartak, despite everything, had a phenomenal season.