Once again, Krasic shows his dominance
CSKA Moskva 3:2 IF Elfsborg (Sweden).
CSKA were lucky to escape with a victory thanks to an egregious error from Elfsborg keeper Ante Wulff. Nevertheless, the Moskva club put in a good first-half effort that showed the potency and speed of their midfield—even in the absence of Alan Dzagoev, who is still recovering from an injury.
CSKA established their midfield dominance early. And while we didn’t need to be convinced, Milos Krasic once again proved how vital he is to CSKA Moskva’s success. His marauding moves down the right flank would consistently open up space for his teammates.
On 19 minutes Keisuke Honda was lurking in the six-yard box to tap in CSKA’s first goal, after the first of such darting runs from the Serbian. Taking the ball to the goal line, Krasic flipped it back toward the center of the box. A deflection off Mark Gonzalez brought it straight to Honda who easily found the net.
This almost nonchalant effort would be followed by Guilherme sending in a cross from the left side on 27 minutes, which would bounce through the porous Elfsborg defense to Mark Gonzalez. Despite an open goal staring back at him, the Chilean’s header lacked power, allowing the defense to recover and clear it off the line.
Krasic would once again cause trouble for Elfsborg. With no defender willing to put pressure on him, he would again dribble toward the touch line. Lifting his head, Krasic once again identified a teammate in space inside the box. A quick flick on to Guilherme and the lead was doubled.
The half ended soon after CSKA would reveal signs of defensive vulnerability. Elfsorg would quickly spring into an attack down CSKA’s right side—exposing the sluggishness of Alexsei Berezutski. A dangerous cross into the box would be sent out of play by a sliding Sergei Ignashevich.
CSKA would make six substitutes in total during the second half, but that would not fully explain away their poor defensive showing.
Martin Ericsson would get an excellent chance 20 minutes into the half, after the CSKA defense was stretched too far to their left. Luckily for the Army club, his sliding attempt on goal would be a second too late.
Just past 70 minutes Ignashevich’s exhaustion would start to show, with Amadou Jawo out-running the center back onto a through ball. It would have been a goal for the Swedes were it not for Igor Akinfeev coming off his line quickly to corral the ball.
On 78 minutes Ignashevich would again be caught completely out of position, allowing Fredrik Bergland to run onto a ball sent into the box. Akinfeev would have no chance at saving the strike this time and suddenly Elfsborg were back in the match.
But two minutes later CSKA appeared to be saved; and they had Elfsborg’s goalkeeper to thank. A simple back-pass to Joakim Wulff would see the keeper whiff on his clearance—leaving the ball to roll into his net while he fell to the pitch. An embarrassing display that was made even more ridiculous in that Tomas Necid decided to sprint faster than he had all match in order to get his name on the scoresheet. Alas, it went down as an own goal.
Three minutes after CSKA extended the lead Daniel Mobaeck would all-to-easily skirt around his marker, Anton Zabolotny, to tap in a corner for Elfsborg. A poor display from the young substitute, but only one of a series of lackluster defensive moments.
As for the attacking side of CSKA’s play, Pavel Mamaev was pushed too wide to be effective, Zabolotny never truly established himself up front, and Necid was egregiously slow and uninterested. In all fairness to Sekou Oliseh (who came on for Gonzalez), the young Nigerian did show his speed in one slaloming run—but the midfield in general during the second half was out-of-sync.
Kirill Nababkin—on for Alexei Berezeutsky at right-back—would have the most-promising performance for CSKA in the second-half. Looking more than comfortable going forward, but not dangerously so, he was arguably—and oddly—the most effective attacker once Honda left the match.
We’ll see how coach Leonid Slutsky responds to the unconvincing win when CSKA meet Rosenborg BK (Norway) on Saturday.
CSKA squad: Akinfeev; A. Berezutski (Nababkin, 46), V. Berezutski, Ignashevich, Shchennikov; Semberas (Rahimic, 46), Aldonin; Krasic (Mamaev, 46), Honda (Zabolotny, 65), Gonzalez (Oliseh, 62); Guilherme (Necid, 46)
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