“Let him walk the streets carefully.” How Spartak and CSKA played four times in the championship
This moment has come. Today CSKA and Spartak will play in the eighth round of the RPL. And while the match has not started, there is time to remember the brightest moments in the history of this confrontation. One of them happened 10 years ago. Then, during the season, four derbies were played in the championship.
“The departure of fans is an attitude towards mediocre gaming.” Derby, which is painful for Spartak to remember
So, the season is 2011/2012. RPL switched to the European system “autumn-spring”, so instead of 30 rounds the teams had to play 44. The championship lasted more than a year, and at the decisive stage the table was divided into two eights.
The first derby of that season took place at the end of April 2011. Spartak was bad then. The team scored only seven points in six matches and trailed in 11th place, and Valery Karpin, who combined the posts of head coach and general director, risked losing one of the posts. Leonid Slutsky’s CSKA was in perfect order: 14 points, the difference between goals scored and conceded – plus 10, first place in the table. It seems that the favorite is obvious.
Before the starting whistle, boxer Denis Lebedev even entered the field. He supported CSKA, but did not bring good luck to the team. CSKA played better, created scoring chances – that was not enough. In the 78th minute, Spartak midfielder Aiden McGeady gave a cross pass to striker Ari, who moved from the left half-flank to the center and powerfully shot into the far corner. CSKA never got it back, and the red and white confirmed that the worse they are, the more chances they have in the derby.
After the match, Slutsky gave Spartak its due for playing on the defensive, and Karpin said that his team had fulfilled the game plan. But the happiest of all was Artyom Dzyuba. “We are all heroes today. This victory was deserved by everyone – the fans, our relatives – everyone involved in Spartak. Everyone who is rooting for us, and we are millions. This match was important for everyone. And today we have a real holiday, ”said the red-and-white forward.
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The next derby in the RPL was played at the end of August. Unlike the previous one, it came out bright and went down in history because of the scandal. By that time, Spartak had improved its position in the RPL, was in the top five, but right before the derby, it was shamefully eliminated from the qualification of the Europa League, losing at home to Legia. CSKA were in the lead in the championship and were 10 points ahead of their principal rival.
Before the match, Karpin admitted that he had a tense conversation with Leonid Fedun: “There is simply no time for conclusions, for decisions. On Sunday, the game against CSKA. In such situations, conclusions mean either the resignation of the coach or his dismissal. After the game with Legia, I didn’t want to coach anymore. I will say more: if not for the match against CSKA, which is not such an important game for us, I would have resigned. “
The main event of the derby happened after half an hour of play. Spartak forward Welliton, after being carried out, rushed towards the other’s goal. Igor Akinfeev ran to hit the ball with his head over the side. The Brazilian also jumped and flew into the CSKA goalkeeper. He landed unsuccessfully and immediately realized that he could not play further. A few minutes later, Akinfeev was already being carried away from the field on a stretcher, and he was cursing threats towards Welliton. According to the results of the episode, the Brazilian received a yellow card from Sergey Karasev, and scored in the end of the first half.
Photo: Alexander Mysyakin, “Championship”
After the break, CSKA made a comeback and came out ahead, but Spartak still took points – the debut goal for the club was effectively scored by Emmanuel Emenike.
After the match, a fire started. Slutsky said that Akinfeev was injured by the “crosses” and criticized Welliton. Karpin stood up for his player and sharply responded to the remark that he had deprived the Russian national team of the main goalkeeper. “This is his problems. What does the national team goalkeeper mean? What is he now, a medal to hang? Don’t touch the national team players at all? ” – the mentor of “Spartak” was indignant.
But the brightest of all was the general director of CSKA Roman Babaev. He called Welliton “a complete bastard” and gave the Brazilian a threatening advice: “The way through the streets walks carefully.” Karpin was enraged by these words. He promised to submit an application to the prosecutor’s office. Heat!
“I will do everything so that it no longer works.” Karasev is called the judge of CSKA, but is that so?
The next derby had to wait six months. By mid-March, Zenit had become the leader of the RPL, while CSKA and Spartak (and several other teams) were actively fighting for second place, which allowed them to play in the Champions League.
At the end of the first half, CSKA took the lead thanks to Zoran Tosic, who at that time had no idea that he would become an evil genius for Spartak. At the beginning of the second half of the meeting, Dziuba equalized, but the red and white still lost – Seydou Doumbia scored the second and brought victory to his team.
After the match, Slutsky expressed the opinion that Spartak got off easily: “The score does not reflect the number of chances that we had. If we used our capabilities, we would have avoided a nervous ending. “
Red-and-white veteran Yevgeny Lovchev rode around the team’s coach: “Karpin as a coach is not suitable for Spartak. Once again I was convinced that he is a low-level coach. “
Dziuba was more optimistic. The Spartak forward did not think that the army team were head and shoulders above: “We did not yield to our rivals either in toughness or in single combats. CSKA just took advantage of their half-chances. As for our goal, my whole life I dreamed of scoring against CSKA. It is a pity that this did not lead to the result that we were trying to achieve.
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The fourth and final derby of the season happened a little more than a month later, at the end of April. “Spartak” by that time had already bypassed CSKA in the table, but still needed points.
The red and white played great, but they clearly lacked luck. To be more precise, Ari was especially unlucky. In the middle of the first half, Tosic made a free kick – the ball hit the Brazilian and bounced into the goal. Before the break, Dziuba equalized the score, but at the beginning of the second half of the meeting, history repeated itself. Free kick, Tosic, ricochet from Ari. “Spartak” then also remained in the minority (Dmitry Kombarov retired) and could not recoup.
Karpin was not embarrassed by the second consecutive defeat in the derby. At a press conference, he praised his players: “It was our best match, we created ten chances to score. CSKA, however, almost never hitting the goal, won. The football god was on their side today. We will try to play this way in the future. If it works out, then everything will be fine with us. “
Photo: Alexander Mysyakin, “Championship”
Spartak’s advantage was also confirmed by Slutsky. According to him, the red and white controlled the game. “I must admit that the score does not quite correspond to the course of the match, but once we should have been lucky,” said the CSKA mentor.
The season ended epic. “Spartak” did not fall after the lost derby and, taking a point in the match with “Dynamo”, gave a shock ending, defeating “Zenith” and “Lokomotiv”. The red and white finished second, two points ahead of CSKA and jumped into the Champions League. And Karpin finished the job beautifully and handed over the coaching post to Unai Emery (not for long).
CSKA failed the ending. After the derby there was a victory over Lokomotiv, and then something went wrong. A draw with “Kuban” and a loss to “Rubin” deprived the army team of the main European Cup. The third place allowed to play only in the Europa League.
10 years ago Spartak and CSKA were a force in Russian football. Now their affairs are not going so well, but today I would like to see a derby that is not inferior in intensity to those matches.