The score 0: 0 - the result with a touch of cunning, almost always relieving its earners of categorical ratings and gifting maneuver when choosing formulations. But rarely, in exceptional cases, allowing you to be completely satisfied with yourself. Zeros from Porto are an ideal example of numbers that everyone, from the fan to the head coach, is free to dispose of at his discretion.
Valery Gazzayev and his long-time opponent Gesualdo Ferreira, for example, in express comments for the press, as if conspiring, emphasized the shortcomings of the attack. Based on the goalless outcome, it is in principle true. “We would have won if the attack had acted as successfully as defense and midfield, ” it sounded from the lips of the helmsman. Surely among the contemplators of the match there are many who are ready to reformulate the Gazzaev assessment in their own way. We will not object to the reproach of the attack: how could it be otherwise if Wagner Love, who played on the tip, has as many hits as the team’s own goals? (We note in passing that Adriano, who played a similar role among the hosts and also Brazilian, threatened the goal four times.) But there are objections to the “successful” component of the Muscovites. We narrow this category with a pure heart to the only character - goalkeeper Akinfeev. He really did without the remembered mistakes, although with a dashing shake of the bar by Anderson in the 15th minute, luck played in conjunction with Igor.
That sudden blow, by the way, the 18-year-old (the child’s prodigy Jo!), The attacking midfielder struck with the left from 25 meters, having won the power struggle for the position with the defender Rakhimich, - why not a pebble in the garden of the middle line coach that you liked? And in our opinion, despite the numerical superiority, it was generally inferior in the dispute over the center of the field. This determined the proportion of threats (approximately 1 to 2), unusual for CSKA in the matches of the Russian championship. She, meanwhile, kept steady in the statistics of game actions throughout the match. Exactly - not equal. In addition, the severity of threats to the “Port” seemed incomparably higher: we recall at least strikes from the goalkeeper’s border performed by Adriano, Lucio Gonzalez, Lisandro Lopez.
Let us leave, however, to the share of the Portuguese complaining about the lack of luck or mastery of the finalists of their attacks. Under the condition of reasonably increased attention to the Russian champion, it is more important for us to concern ourselves with the issue of a fairly easy cross of his defensive orders. And the answer does not seem to be hidden so far away. But what if this is an elementary shortage of people? The construction of three defenders, with a bang passing by the army team in the internal arena, made me doubt its practicality when meeting with the first, far from top, opponent in the champion league. (Let us recall along the way how elegantly avoided the temptation to build on the Tsesk patterns of Guus Hiddink, it is not obvious to many that in the game with the Croats he made the fourth pure defender Anyukov.)
The Gazzaev defense option used at the Port seemed risky in and of itself. But its dangerous flaw was seen in the loose flanks. From playing there Zhirkov and Krasic (as well as any other), the Champions League will require much greater care in the selection and destruction and much harder shuttle work. Especially in cases where future rivals, like Port, will consciously bet on penetration into the army penalty just from the edge.
By the way, future rivals, “Hamburg” and “Arsenal”, held a fight on Wednesday, which was completely unremarkable in terms of a comparative assessment of their strengths. The purity of the experiment was violated not only by the absence of iconic figures (van der Warth and Henri) on both sides, but also by an early emergency. The hosts of the Hamburg arena lost from the 12th minute, remaining also ten men. The multi-faceted talented arsenal van Persie played the gullible little-beaten Swedish league referee Freudfeldt. With an artistic simulation of a foul of last hope within the penalty area, he asked the Scandinavian for a little penalty (scored by Gilberto Silva), as well as a red card for the goalkeeper of Hamburg Kirshstein. So simply having gained an advantage in advantage together with numerical, Londoners took the game under tight control. He became completely burdensome for them at the beginning of the second half, when Rositsky in the corporate style masterfully targeted the “nine” from distant approaches to the penalty area. Soon after, Arsene Wenger clearly switched to worrying about Sunday's battle with Manchester United, carefully replacing van Persie and Gleb. The trainers themselves returned to Hamburg's anxieties only for a moment. Having lost concentration, they made a goal on the flag Sanogo, which seriously upset unless Lemann. His “dry” goalkeeper series in the Champions League, conceived in the last cycle, survived to the mark of 853 minutes.
Sergey NOVIKOV