by Artem Sokolov exclusively for VK
Russia lost its last player at the European arena last week.
Zenit
The opponents of the St. Petersburg team were Porto, Shakhter and APOEL. Luciano Spalletti’s APOEL took the second position in the group and entered the 1/8 of final in the League of Champions for the first time. Vyacheslav Malafeyev’s reliability was notable in the games of Zenit with Porto. Zenit played vs. Benfica in the 1/8 of finals. The home game ended with 3:2. Benfica won 2:0 in the next match.
CSKA
The team played against Inter, Trabzonspor and Lille. Slutsky’s team needed to overplay Inter and hope for a draw at a parallel match. Vasily Berezutsky scored a goal at the very end. Games vs. Lille and Trabzonspor ended a draw. The team had a home game vs. Real, resulting in 1:1. It was followed by a game in Madrid, where Jose Mourinho’s players scored 4:1.
Lokomotiv
The team played against Sturm, Anderlecht and AEK. Lokomotiv lost the home game with Anderlecht 0:2 and lost the away game to Jose Couceiro’s team 3:5. Nonetheless, despite the two matches with Belgians, Lokomotiv had a playoff vs. Athletic Club of Bilbao. It won the home game 2:1, but the away match Couceiro’s players failed. As a result, Athletic won 1:0, Lokomotiv entered the next stage.
Rubin
The team played against Tottenham, PAOK and Shamrock Rovers. The Kazan team entered the playoff after the game with the English team. Two matches vs. the Greek team of Olimpiakos ended 0:1. One of the main reasons for poor playing of Rubin was the transfer market, because the team could not get better players.
Besides, Zenit, CSKA, Lokomotiv and Rubin, Russia was represented by Alania and Spartak. The game of Vladikavkaz against the Turkish Besiktas was predictable, but the loss to Poland’s Legia was a total surprise for the fans.
Results
Four Russian clubs entered the spring stage of European cups for the first time in history. Although the first round of playoff had no Russian teams pass, the year was a success, nonetheless. At the same time, results of all matches of Russian teams were explicable. It may seem as though the first playoff is the benchmark for Russian clubs. Periodically, exceptions occur only to prove the point. The clubs will have playoffs regularly, but expectations for progress is dim.
