The next Russian football championship is just around the corner. Until the new Russian season has begun, the best representatives of European football enter the fray. On Wednesday and Thursday, matches are played for the 1/16 finals of the UEFA Cup, where CSKA and Spartak will face off against the Israeli Maccabi and the Spanish Celta.
Our teams underwent intensive training at the training camp, then tested each other in the Channel One Cup. Many players and the national team went to Holland, so now you can go on a feat of arms. CSKA intend to return the UEFA Cup to Vatutinki, where, as you know, he has the right place, but Spartak hopes to keep up with his sworn friends. After all, why is CSKA possible, but not for them?
CSKA rival in the 1/16 finals, “Maccabi” from the city of Haifa, appeared in all its splendor on the Channel One Cup. Having played a draw with Dynamo Kyiv, the Israeli team then lost to Spartak. It is clear that Valery Gazzaev and his headquarters carefully studied that match, however, the army team should prepare for the worst anyway. The UEFA Cup is a tournament of a different level, so Maccabi will surely be different: it will stand in front of the forest and back to the opponent. There are decent players in the team - first of all, they are the players of the Israeli national team Nir Davidovich, Yaniv Katan, Roberto Colautti and Shlomi Arbeitman. Maccabi knows how to play football that is extremely nasty for everyone - the Israelis catch their fish in muddy and viscous water. If CSKA takes its opponent seriously and shows its normal football, there shouldn’t be any problems: in theory, the army team are superior to Maccabi. A certain arrogance, again slipping through the speeches of Valery Gazzayev, however, cannot but inspire concern - for him, as it turns out, Hamburg is not a team. Such an attitude towards “Maccabi” can CSKA come out sideways.
Spartak has a more difficult task - no matter what place Celta takes in the Spanish Championship, she takes it in the Spanish Championship, not Israel. The Iberian season is in full swing, and physically “Celta” is probably ready better than “Spartacus”. This team actually was not considered a candidate for departure in Spain: it was planned that the Galicians would again compete for a place in European competitions. However, from about the middle of the first round, the Celta began to swim, and God knows when this unsentimental journey will end. The leadership was already meeting in an extraordinary meeting and decided: coach Fernando Vazquez to work until the end. Well, at least until the end of the season. In fact, for Spartak this is a plus - for the last matches of Celta it does not seem that things are getting better.
Nevertheless, the Spartacists should not relax. Any team playing in the championship of Spain can set serious tasks for the Russian club. Just because I'm used to a different level of resistance than Spartak. The composition of the “Celta” is decent: here are the candidates for the Spanish national team Angel and Ubigna, and the Brazilian scorer Fernando Bayano, and you never know who else. The problem of Celta is not a shortage of performers, but the inability of the coach Vasquez to work with these performers. In Spain, for a long time no one understands what Celta is playing: Fernando Vazquez shuffles players, changes schemes, and things are still there. It is this state of Celta that Spartak should use. However, for this he himself needs to play at a high level - the usual, home for the Spanish team is not enough.
Meanwhile, one team has already passed without a game in the 1/8 finals of the Cup. Happiness poured English Tottenham. The Dutch Feyenord shone in the draw for the Spurs, but the Rotterdam club suffered because of their fans. With an official warning in their hands, Feyenord fans made a row in the stands during the match against Nancy, and UEFA picked up and excluded the Dutch club from the rally. Here is Tottenham and cut down the mini jackpot, so now it is the “spurs” - the UEFA Cup bookmaker's favorite. They give 5.5 to 1 for the victory of Tottenham - even less than for the current winner of the Sevilla Cup and the Bremen Werder Bremen.
The UEFA Cup is a fairly even tournament, so there is someone to look at at the 1/16 finals. The main hit is the confrontation between Werder Bremen and Ajax - by the way, it is the winner of this pair who conditionally qualifies for Spartak in the eighth finals. Spectacular football is practically guaranteed to the fans: Werder Bremen and Ajax are simply not able to play boring. At the time of the draw, the Werder Bremen looked like an unconditional favorite, however, much has changed since then. The Bremen did not start very well in the second round of the Bundesliga, while Ajax, on the contrary, pulled up to PSV in the Dutch championship table. Wesley Sneijder and Ryan Babel got a brilliant form, which Igor Akinfeev and his teammates know for sure.
Kirill DEMENTYEV