CSKA football players, inspired by the long-awaited victory over Luch-Energiya (by the way, because of the referee's blunder, this victory caused a lot of gossip), will receive the Slovak Ruzomberok at the Lokomotiv stadium. Moscow “Spartak” will play its first away match against the Czech “Slovan”.The wards of Valery Gazzayev, who celebrated his 52nd birthday on Monday, came up to the match with the Slovaks with virtually no loss: the only one who trains on an individual program is Chidi Odia. CSKA, recently not spoiling fans with a confident game in the national championship, are seriously determined to atone for their guilt. The point is small - to get into the group stage of the Champions League. In the way of the Russian champion stands “Ruzomberok” - a Slovak club that has never shone in the European arena. However, football history knows cases where Russian clubs, which were in the rank of favorites, somehow miraculously flew past the group stage of the League.
If our teams were declared favorites, it usually didn’t lead to anything good: they began to feel dizzy from success. CSKA can write a textbook on this topic, just remember “Melde” and “Vardar”. In the end, the army team made conclusions from their failures and in 2004 beat the Baku Neftchi in the second qualifying round. After defeating such an opponent, the match against the “Glasgow Rangers” looked like a mere trifle.
I want to believe that Gazzaev and his comrades did not dull the taste for victories in European competitions.
Moscow “Spartak” has its own unpleasant memory on the topic of “favorite outsider”: a failed match against “Kosice”, the team that later set the Champions League anti-record (not a single point in 6 matches). However, Muscovites have no time to look back at “Kosice” - the team of Vladimir Fedotov has a real opportunity to continue playing in the League. Contest claims “Spartacus” to enter the group stage over two games to be “Slovan”. The Czech champion is unlikely to easily give away a guest victory, especially since the head coach of the home team, Vitezslav Lavicki, has extensive experience in confrontations with Moscow Spartak. As the second coach of Prague “Sparta”, the current mentor of “Slovan” repeatedly upset the red and white. Unfortunately, the leader of Spartak Yegor Titov, who was injured in the match with Tiraspol Sheriff, will not take part in the match.
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