Tomas Necid bounced back from his sluggish display on Thursday by scoring two against Rosenborg
Part fitness building, part tactical tinkering, CSKA Moskva’s appearance in the Copa del Sol in Marbella, Spain has offered coach Leonid Slutsky the chance to calmly ease his club into their upcoming Champions League bout against Sevilla. On Saturday, round two of their Spanish escapade pitted them against Norwegian champs Rosenborg BK.
It didn’t start in the prettiest of fashions. Four minutes in, Milos Krasic would lose the ball in the midfield after what appeared to be a foul from Mikael Dorsen. But the whistle did not come, allowing Rosenborg to move into their counterattack. As Steffen Iverson sent a pass on to a full-paced Morten Moldskred. Slowed up his run, the striker opened up space between himself and the defenders to send the ball up and over Igor Akinfeev into the back of the net.
From there on, however, CSKA would regain composure and control the match. 10 minutes in Tomas Necid showed some good movement just beyond the box. Moving to his right, he fired a hard shot that was blocked away by keeper Daniel Orlund. The rebound fell to Krasic but Rosenborg’s defense recovered to clear the ball away.
Five minutes later Keisuke Honda displayed the strength of his left boot, sending in a hard shot from 24 yards out. It wouldn’t dip fast enough, however, and passed just over the bar.
CSKA would equalize in the 20th minute after Pavel Mamaev—playing in a more defensive midfield position—sent a beautiful 50 yard pass into the box that was brought down by an on-running Honda. After one touch with his trusty left foot to gain control, Honda snapped a shot off the left post. The ensuing rebound bounced in front of goal, allowing Necid to place it into the net.
The momentum would be fully CSKA’s, as four minutes later Krasic would easily beat Orlund to the keeper’s left after taking a pass from Necid 35 yards from goal.
Another five minutes would pass and another goal: a skillfully taken free kick from Mark Gonzalez would be nicely headed by Necid for his second of the half. Showing the advantage of his height, he flicked the ball over his marker, dipping the ball into the far corner.
CSKA would continue their control of the match in the second half, moving the ball nicely in the midfield. In the 51st minute Guilherme (subbed on for Necid) would spread the attack by sending a ball out for Georgi Schennikov down the left flank. The left-back would send in an excellent cross that Mamaev would get on top of—expertly driving it into the net.
Things began to get shaky in the back for CSKA around 65 minutes, eerily reminiscent of their slack performance late in the match against Elfsborg on Thursday.
A through-ball to Rade Prisca caught Vasili Berezutski out of position, but CSKA was fortunate to see the striker’s shot angled wide.
With the most egregious error behind them, Slutsky still would be justified in his restlessness on the bench. The overall lack in fitness on the CSKA side would begin to really show around the 70th minute, as listless play brought little in the way of chances.
Another strong cross from Gonzalez would be CSKA’s last true goal-bound opportunity. Coming in the 75th minute, the ball would find Guilherme moving into position in the box, but his header would be knocked away by an acrobatic save.
From there CKSA would fall back into defense, allow Rosenborg to hold the ball and build attacks. The defense’s lack of pressure and stretched shape would manage to keep a clean sheet in the second half, but fitness issues still remain.
In comments made to Bobsoccer, Lenoid Slutsky summed up his own impressions of the match:
“Just as in the first match against Elfsborg, I’m satisfied with the way we looked in the first 60 minutes of play. We’ve now tested several options. Alexei Berezutski played as a central defender, Nababkin started the match, and Necid also entered the starting lineup. I’m glad that regardless of these changes we still had a rhythm. In my opinion that’s very important. The only thing that is still difficult to gauge is how physically prepared the team is.”
Slutsky went on to question whether the club is actually fit enough to play a full match, but claimed that based on what he saw the club is making good strides in becoming match fit.
“I want to smoothly distribute the load among the players,” he added. “So today Ignashevich was subbed at halftime and Schennikov was also replaced, although on the left there are practically no alternatives. Right now it can be said that we have 14 to 15 players who could have a place in the starting lineup.”
CSKA squad: Akinfeev, A. Berezutski, Ignashevich (V. Berezutski, 46), Nababkin, Semberas (Aldonin, 46), Schennikov (Odiah, 62), Gonzalez, Krasic (Rahimic, 65), Mamaev (Zabolotny, 71), Honda, Necid (Guilherme, 46).
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