CSKA prepared better than Spartak for the derby, says Shcherbachenko

Russian coach and functionary Fedor Shcherbachenko assessed the result of the Moscow derby between Spartak and CSKA.

Sunday’s match of the 11th round of the MIR RPL at the Spartak stadium ended with a score of 2:2. Quincy Promes and Jesus Medina scored goals for the red-whites, equalizing the score in second-half stoppage time. Defender Milan Gajic scored a double for CSKA.

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— Did CSKA pay for moving back so much in the end? This is such a question, one might say, rhetorical. There are some introductory notes here. You want to keep the score, and you have to change the main players due to injuries – in particular Moises. Plus, Spartak has high-quality football players who know how to outplay their opponents individually. But still, the army team missed a simple goal in stoppage time. It did not happen because of the great pressure of Spartak and not because of a rebound. There was a clear delivery from Klassen to the far post, from where Medina headed it into the left corner. Well, CSKA shouldn’t concede such a goal in the end, the army team needs to stop such moments at their own goal.

I must say that purely in football matters, CSKA prepared better for this match and played in it. What did this mean? Covering all the strengths of Spartak. Akinfeev didn’t have much work to do. And CSKA itself almost all the time until the 70th minute put some pressure on the opponent’s goal. The army team tried to keep the ball away from their goal so that Spartak would not create chances already at the CSKA goal.

Gajic’s first goal and Promes’ goal turned out to be masterpieces. In the case of Gayich’s second goal, Maksimenko can be justified. If it weren’t for the rebound, the ball would probably have flown into the middle of the target, but after the rebound it changed its direction. It was difficult for the goalkeeper to change his position immediately, and the ball flew into the near corner.

The second goal CSKA conceded was first class, first quarter. A visual aid on how a defender should not act in such a situation. The young player failed. Agapov didn’t even have to enter into a difficult fight there; he wasn’t pushed through. There is simply the wrong choice of position, the wrong location. He was not half-turned, but directly turned towards the ball during the serve, and therefore could not prevent Medina’s goal,” Euro-Futbol.Ru quotes Shcherbachenko as saying.

Watch live broadcasts of MIR RPL matches on the Match TV and MATCH PREMIER channels, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.