CSKA achieved a strong-willed victory over Anorthosis

Europa League

CSKA was the first Russian club to achieve the right to participate in the group stage of the Europa League. The army team, who defeated the Cypriot Anorthosis in Moscow with a score of 4:0, looked much worse yesterday in the return match of the final qualifying round on the opponent’s field, but in the end they achieved a strong-willed victory - 2:1.

After the Moscow defeat, it was very difficult to believe that Anorthosis could cause CSKA any trouble, but the beginning of yesterday's match should have worried the army fans a little. The army team, it seems, reacted too complacently to their opponent, who was defeated last Thursday with one left. Meanwhile, I wanted to prove myself at home.

Anorthosis could have scored twice in the opening half hour. At first, the CSKA defenders positioned themselves so poorly when serving from a set piece and so unsuccessfully cleared the ball thrown into the penalty area that Ricardo Laborde had the opportunity to shoot Igor Akinfeev from ten meters without any special interference. It's good that the forward missed.

Then the army team slept through the same Laborda’s jerk. He shot at an angle to the goal, but from an even closer distance than before, but accuracy was not the strong point of the Colombian striker yesterday. Akinfeev again did not have to enter the game.

The hosts' momentum faded in the middle of the first half. CSKA cooled him down with a couple of their sharp attacks, and Laborda, limping and asking for a replacement, sharply reduced the power of the Cypriot attack.

Before the break, the visitors looked much more interesting and fresh. First of all, this applies to Zoran Tosic, who tormented the Anorthosis defense with jerks along the left flank, and once took a great free kick: goalkeeper Matusz Kozachik fished the ball under the crossbar.

The beginning of the second half suggested that CSKA really had a desire to take three points in Cyprus. In any case, Tosic’s work was continued by Seydou Doumbia, who became more active. In one of the episodes, bursting into the penalty area, he shot in such a way that Kozachik would have had no chance if the ball had hit the target and not flew next to the post.

However, this turned out to be more of a one-time episode. CSKA, without visible regret, again gave up territory to Anorthosis. And the goal scored by Cafu, the namesake of the outstanding Brazilian, who fired the ball so hard that it literally pierced Akinfeev’s palm that appeared in his way, was absolutely logical for such a game. The game for the favorite of the pair, it must be said, did not go well at all.

However, at that moment there was only a quarter of an hour left before the end of the match, and, of course, the real threat of relegation from the European Cups could no longer hang over the army team. And the very real threat of giving away points to a low-rated opponent, CSKA, was saved by Doumbia, who showed flexibility and agility, scooping up the ball with his foot after bouncing off the crossbar and sending it into the net with a “parachute,” as well as Mark Gonzalez, who hit the target with a crazy long-range shot before the final whistle. So the army team, who seemed to be content with a draw, achieved an unexpected victory.

Two more Russian clubs will play the return matches of the play-off round on Thursday. Lokomotiv will host Swiss Lausanne at home, with whom they played 1:1 in the first meeting, and Siberia will go to Holland to visit PSV Eindhoven, which lost to Novosibirsk a week ago - 0:1.

Alexey Dospehov

The army team refused to lose