“We definitely don’t have a crisis. Five goals were scored in two games, but there could have been ten more” – CSKA coach Nikolic

After the 17th round match of the MIR RPL with Rubin Kazan, head coach of CSKA Moscow Marko Nikolic noted the high quality of the team’s play in recent meetings.

The meeting took place on Saturday at the VEB Arena in Moscow and ended with a score of 2:2. In the 65th minute, Rubin remained in the minority after Dmitry Kabutov was sent off. The army team scored their second goal in stoppage time. Earlier this week, CSKA defeated Rubin in the FONBET Russian Cup match – 3:0.

— Comparing this game and the match that was with Rubin four days ago, can we say that the main emphasis is on the Cup, not the championship?

– You can’t say that. It seems to me that we played better today than three days ago. I’ve been a pragmatic coach all my life. For me, the result is most important. But you also need to recover quickly, sometimes you need rotation.

Today we had more chances. It’s just that then the game went after our goals, but today we weren’t able to score quickly.

We definitely don’t have a crisis. We played well in the last games. We have the desire, we have the moments, we fight. Five goals were scored in two games, but they could have scored ten more.

– What about Shumansky?

— After winter training, we can expect Shumansky to be in the lineup. I like how the team’s group of young players are progressing, including Shumansky.

— How would you evaluate the results of the Cup draw?

— It’s hard to say that Dynamo is the best option. In my opinion, the team is in the top 3 or top 4 this season. But it’s easier in terms of the fact that we will play almost nearby, and not in Rostov-on-Don,” the Match TV correspondent reports Nikolich’s words.

The army team is sixth in the championship standings with 28 points. In the next round, CSKA will play away against Fakel on December 8.

In the semi-finals of the RPL Path of the Russian Cup, CSKA will play against Dynamo Moscow, the matches will take place next year.

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.

• “In the second half we kept everything under control” – CSKA coach Nikolic about the draw with Rubin
• CSKA coach talks about the draw with Rubin in the RPL match: “I’m happy, we turned the game around from 0:2. A couple of minutes were not enough, we would have scored more”