Crowded "Luzhniki"
After the crushing defeat of Lokomotiv in Portugal, CSKA was the only hope for the Russian fans in the Champions League. Despite the fact that the chances of the army to enter the playoffs before the start of the group stage were rated as miserable, they managed to surprise the whole country, and the sensational victory over Real Madrid went down in history.
Now it remained to hope that CSKA would be able to please again in a match with Roma at the crowded Luzhniki. When it became known that the homework of the Champions League wards of Viktor Goncharenko would be held not in their own stadium, but in the Sparrow Hills, many were afraid that the arena would be filled only during a meeting with Real.
Fortunately, this was not the case. Even on the eve of the match with Roma in the Moscow club, they reported that over 60 thousand tickets had been sold. As a result, a full house almost gathered at the stadium.
Law enforcement officers politely searched football fans as much as possible, and volunteers gladly came to the rescue of fans. Musicians met people on the territory of the arena itself. Already two hours before the start of the game, enough people gathered around the arena.
Their support was supposed to help CSKA score three points and take revenge from the Italian team for the defeat on the road two weeks ago. Moreover, the victory was necessary for the army team to return to the playoff zone.
The army press service approached the game with humor and released a funny movie in which a wolf in the form of "Roma" collected balls from Fyodor Chalov, Alan Dzagoev and Nikola Vlasic in the popular Soviet game "Well, wait." According to the authors, the Romans were supposed to miss the ball on Wednesday.
🐴 vs 🐺
The game continues! 😉
Ц # TsSKARoma: https: //t.co/oit4XsryRppic.twitter.com/l53NmdxE5x
But Goncharenko was not joking. Unfortunately, recently the coach can rarely release all the strongest players on the field, as these or other performers regularly end up in the infirmary due to injuries. This time, Abel Hernandez was not able to help the team. Uruguayan did not have time to recover from damage, as he got a relapse in the derby with Dynamo.
Pre-match training missed and regularly experiencing health problems Alan Dzagoev. The Russian midfielder did not even get into the application for the match.
But Mario Fernandez in a tough confrontation with Konstantin Raush escaped injury. Plus, Igor Akinfeev, who missed the game in Rome due to disqualification, returned to the base, which, of course, was a tremendous help for the army team.
As a result, the starting lineup of the army team almost completely repeated the lineup for the game with Dynamo. Is that the place Dzagoeva took Yaka Biyol. Together with Ilzat Akhmetov, who was called up to the Russian national team, the Slovenian made up a familiar bundle in the support zone.
🔥 Our lineup is at #CSCARA!
Akinfeev, Fernandez, Bekao, Magnusson, Nababkin, Oblyakov, Biyol, Akhmetov, Vlašić, Sigurdsson, Chalov
Spare: Pomazun, Chernov, Efremov, Nishimura, Schennikov, Zhamaletdinov, Hosonov pic.twitter.com/Mr7JxoSGjg
Early goal and pressure CSKA
Alas, like Lokomotiv, CSKA started the match with a ball quickly missed. Already in the fourth minute, “Roma” opened the account after a corner. Akinfeev played poorly at the exit, and Kostas Manolas quietly turned the projectile into the net with his head.
To top it all off CSKA soon left without Fernandez. In a desperate tackle, Mario apparently aggravated the damage received in the match with Dynamo and was unable to continue the game. Naturalized Brazilian straight from the field carried to the locker room. Instead, Goncharenko released George Schennikov.
To the credit of the young players of CSKA, it is worth saying that they quickly came to their senses and seized the initiative. The home team at the loss of the ball instantly organized high pressure to prevent quick attacks on their gates.
As always, the most prominent player in the army was Nikola Vlašić. Horvath regularly picked up the ball on the left flank and, with almost no losses, personally dragged him forward. Ilzat Akhmetov was also productive, who repeatedly delighted fans with an extraordinary technique. Apparently, the call to the national team really inspired the young midfielder.
But Chalov turned out to be almost imperceptible and rarely clung to the ball. Manolas and Federico Fazio, two high central defenders of Roma, followed the attacker closely. As a result, CSKA had practically no chances, despite the advantage in possession of the ball.
After an hour of play, the young army team, as in Rome, sharply slowed down. In one of the counterattacks Akinfeev almost missed the second ball. CSKA was lucky that Alessandro Florenz, jumping out on a rendezvous with Igor, stumbled.
And at the end of the half wards Goncharenko responded their one hundred percent lost moment. Arnor Sigurdsson brought a fine gear to the rendezvous with Robin Olsen of Ivan Oblyakov, but he pulled in a blow and allowed to cover himself with a defender. Shchennikov same on finishing off his head sent the ball above the goal.
Removal of Magnusson and Oblyakov moment
But immediately after the break, the pressure of CSKA finally bore fruit. Akhmetov once again picked up the ball in the center of the field, dragged it to someone else's penalty area and made a verified transfer to Sigurdsson. Icelander handled the ball with one touch, and the second struck into the far corner.
Alas, the joy of the army turned out to be short. Within a few minutes, the team remained in the minority. Magnusson in the subcategory broke the opponent's attack near his own penalty and received a well-deserved second yellow card.
Left without a third central defender, CSKA immediately missed. Lorenzo Pellegrini, after an unsuccessful strike by his partner, was right in front of Akinfeev and did not miss.
In addition, the Romans repeatedly began to pass fast attacks through the central zone of the Muscovites. Bekao and Nababkin together simply could not cope with Jack and partners.
In order to avoid the worst, Goncharenko had to release on the field defender Nikita Chernov instead of the author of the goal Sigurdsson. Attacking potential such a replacement CSKA, of course, did not add.
And soon, instead of the active Akhmetov, Khetag Khosonov entered the game. At the same time, the attackers Takuma Nishimura and Timur Zhamaletdinov remained on the bench.
Despite all the problems, the army team in the last 20 minutes managed to organize a kind of final assault and even had the opportunity to even the score. All the same Oblyakov, as in the first half, broke into the penalty area from the right flank, but from the most advantageous position struck directly into the hands of Olsen.
The referee added four minutes to the main match time, and the army team even earned a few dangerous standards, but CSKA failed to escape from defeat, as was the case in the Moscow match four years ago. The defeat leaves almost no red-blue chances of getting into the playoffs of the Champions League. Now their gap from the "Roma" is five points.