CSKA Moscow v Spartak Moscow - RPL

During this season I am going to try and Review most of the games I watched and possibly any comments or thoughts on highlights that catch my eye.


On Tuesday new channel ESPN showed CSKA Moscow v Spartak Moscow from the Russian Premier League, the game was played on the 26th of July, I didn't know the score so I recorded the game and watched it on Wednesday.


So here's the first of many reviews, I'm not gonna bore people with lots of words about ever incident, so gonna give my thoughts, any players that stood out and anything else that comes to mind.


CSKA MOSCOW 1 SPARTAK MOSCOW 2

TEAMS
CSKA: Akinfeev, V.Berezutski, Ignashevich, Odiah, Semberas, Shennikov, Aldonin, Dzagoev, Krasic, Mamaev, Vagner Love
SPARTAK: Dzhanaev, Jiranek, Makeev, Stranzl, Alex, Boyarintsev, Bystrov, Carioca, Kovalchuk, Parshivlyuk, Wellinton

This was my first RPL game in over a year, and I haven't seen Spartak play since Celtic put them out the Champions League qualifier, so I was looking forward to this and it didn't disappoint, the game finished 2-1, 2 red cards, numerous incidents, a nice reintroduction to Russian football.

Devid Semberas opened the scoring for CSKA with a lovely strike the ball rebounded out to him at the edge of the box and his sweet strike was too good for young Spartak keeper Dzhanaev.

CSKA could only keep the lead for 10 minutes, Spartak got a Free Kick on the edge of the box and Brazilian Alex curled the ball beautifully over the wall and it hit the post then off Akinfeev and into the net, it was a fantastic free kick, and Alex impressed me throughout the match, not a player I had seen or heard of before but he definitley caught my eye a few times, good on the ball, skillful, good passing, someone I will be looking out for in the future, it was also Alex who scored Spartak's 2nd, scoring from the penalty spot with 25 minutes to go.

Both team ended with 10 men, Spartak had Kovalchuk sent off for 2 yellow cards, he battled hard in midfield but just one too many bad challenges, in the 90th minute Vagner Love was chasing back as the last man, and brought down the Spartak forward can't remember who it was, and the referee had no choice but to send him off.

The win put Spartak 1 point off Rubin Kazan at the top of the league.

Krasic impressed me for CSKA, looked a decent player, he played mostly down the right, decent pace, intelligent player, I had heard good things so was good to see him play.Apart from Alex in Spartak's team, Bystrov looked good, a very pacy winger, maybe the final ball let him down, but he caused loads of problems for CSKA's defence.

I hope to watch more Russian games this year, so I'll get a better idea of who the players are, It's difficult watching the games as the have the names on the shirts in Russian so if you don't know who's who it's confusing.

My knowledge will grow though.

Match Rating 7.5/10
Man of the Match - Alex (Spartak)