Two circumstances shocked the Moscow public at the start of the match. Rain, which often bypassed Moscow this summer and was not considered traditional army weather, and the appearance of Ivica Olica in the starting lineup of CSKA. In calendar matches of the Russian championship, Valery Gazzayev preferred to pair his compatriot Wagner to Jo, as a result of which he won only one match out of the last five.
CSKA went out to play without a nominal right midfielder. These functions, in theory, should have been assigned to Milos Krasic, but in reality the range of his actions was much wider. It was Krasic who in the center created the first real threat to the goal of “Ruzomberok”. Marek Sapara immediately responded to his attack with the same, and CSKA's starting playing advantage was immediately nullified.
Further, however, it became clear that the guests could not maintain the pace set by the army team. Their attacking events were easily suppressed by the trio V. Berezutsky - Ignashevich - Šemberas, and even from behind the Slovaks did not always keep pace with Olic, Krasic and Jo. Daniel Carvalho was the first to discover that Ruzomberok goalkeeper Lyubos Gaiduh was not as good on the line as at the exits, but his partners, Carvalho, did not support the Brazilian’s initiative to shoot on goal from afar. Although, it would seem, the weather had.
Nevertheless, the sharp moments at the gate, “Ruzomberok” enough in the first half. Jo hit his head, Olic, having won the power struggle, threw the ball over the goalkeeper, Krasic generally tried to attack from any position. The score 0: 0 nevertheless remained until the last minutes of the first half.
But at the beginning of the second army broke through. After a theoretically non-dangerous free kick performed by Carvalho Olic, not meeting resistance, gracefully threw the ball over the opponent's gate guard. And seven minutes later, he also supported the breakthrough of Wagner who replaced and technically closed the flanking chamber.
The timid attempts of the Slovak champion to score at least once at a party failed completely. Igor Akinfeev really did not even have to enter the game. While the army team tried to build on success. First of all, Wagner, who in the 82nd minute had the perfect chance. The Brazilian did not get into the empty net, but after a minute corrected. He was at the right time in the right place when Krasic decided to transfer to the penalty area. The ball and foot of Wagner found each other - and CSKA goes to Slovakia with a handicap of three goals.
Mikhail MELNIKOV, Anton FILINSKY