He started in the group stage with an away draw against Udinese.

Anzhi Makhachkala started their performance in the group stage of the Europa League quite successfully. In Italy, he almost defeated Udinese, one of the tournament favorites. The Italians managed to win back the goal scored in the first half by Lacina Traore only at the very end of the match.

For Anzhi, which won six wins in six matches in qualifying for the group stage of the second European Cup, the meeting did not start in such a way as to confidently assume that this series in Italy would never end. The Udinese squad was fairly diluted with backups: for example, Antonio Di Natale, Dusan Basta, and Giampiero Pinzi remained on the bench. But the hosts’ game suggested that they lacked motivation and could become easy prey for the Makhachkala residents only for a quarter of an hour. Anzhi tormented them with attacks into the penalty area on the tall Lacina Traore, and for some reason the Udinese defenders and goalkeeper Daniele Padelli reacted to them with too obvious nervousness.

But it soon passed. And the first serious threat from the air arose at the gates not of Udinese, but of Anzhi. The set piece resulted in a cross to Mehdi Benatia, who fired from five meters: the ball flew over the crossbar.

This blow was followed by a not entirely nightmarish period of play for Anzhi, but the period was definitely not one for which coach Guus Hiddink should praise his players. They didn't hold the ball well in the middle of the field. From time to time, cracks appeared in the defense, large enough for the fast players of the Udinese attack line to penetrate into them.

One of these attacks ended, for example, with a pass that crossed almost the entire Anzhi penalty area diagonally backwards. If one of the hosts had found himself on the trajectory, he would have had a chance to deal with Makhachkala goalkeeper Evgeniy Pomazan without any interference. Anji was lucky: none of the opponents got to the ball.

And this was far from the only poignant moment experienced by the guests. Often it even came down to fairly targeted strikes: some lacked accuracy, some lacked power. The Dagestan club was not noted by them at all.

In general, if the scoreless draw had remained at the break, Anzhi, in theory, should have been pleased. But he managed to get away with it, taking the lead.

The goal turned out to be funny. Lacina Traore rushed to cut the corner on his powerful legs and got almost to the baseline. From this point, of course, a cross pass suggested itself. It seems that the Udinese defenders and Padelli convinced themselves in advance that there would definitely be a cross: the goalkeeper, in any case, moved to intercept. It was half-cross, half-hit. Traore sent the ball straight along the “ribbon”, and Padelli, rushing to intercept, messed up by correcting it into the goal.

In the second half, Udinese coach Francesco Guidolin abandoned the idea of achieving an acceptable result with relatively little loss, saving the leaders' strength. Di Natale and Basta entered the field with an interval of a couple of minutes. However, it cannot be said that after this a terrible wave rolled over Anzhi, sweeping away everything in its path. The Makhachkala residents quite reliably stopped the Italian attacks, and truly dangerous episodes at their goal, like the one in which Marco Faraoni tried to shoot in the summer, were very rare.

It was perhaps a little hotter at the Udinese gate. And in the end, when Samuel Eto'o curled the ball into the corner, Padelli saved the hosts by jumping into the corner in time. Right there, however, Udinese finally snapped back. And Pomazan already helped out his team, preventing Basta from literally entering the goal with the ball.

After this, Anzhi did not have long to wait until another European Cup victory. But he still couldn’t bear it. Already in stoppage time, Pomazan coped with a tight shot from the penalty area, but failed to finish off the experienced Di Natale, who was in wait for the rebound.

Late at night, the second Russian participant started in the group stage of the Europa League. Rubin - also in Italy - played with Inter.

Alexey Dospehov

Anzhi remained invincible