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Despite the emphasis on performances in European competitions by Luhansk Zarya at the beginning of this season, Viktor Skripnik’s team failed to score points in the opening two rounds. The problem was that the composition of the members of Quartet G was drawn in such a way that it was immediately possible to mark the main favorites in the fight for the playoffs. Unfortunately, the representative of Ukraine was not among them, but the position of the loser was a trump card for the “men”, but it did not serve them in the initial two rounds.
The third day, and in general, the tag team fights at the halfway point of the UEFA Europa League group stage, was marked for Zarya by a full-time showdown with Greek AEK. Skripnik’s team was supposed to start the defining fragment of the European Cup season in a home game in Zaporozhye, and the overall strategy for matches with the “double-headed eagles” sounded simple enough: two wins, from otherwise one could forget about the European spring.
The heavy mental background of the results in the Lugansk Europa League was not compensated by matches in the domestic arena, where Zarya could not make the most of the defeat of PFC Lviv (5: 0), in his next four games he drew three times with a score of 1: 1. Even if one of these games fell in the confrontation with the Dynamo in their field.
AEK had no similar problems to their rivals with results in the Greek Super League, where Massimo Carrera’s team came in third, behind Aris and Olympiacos by just three points in total. But internationally, the Greeks achieved the same results as the Luhansk people. They even had the same goal difference (1: 5 each). Consequently, already in the first meeting between them, one could expect the appearance of the last outsider of the quartet.
In a reported match, the Luhansk team set out for a unique achievement, having stepped on each of the rakes from previous Europa League matches. There was also a quick pass conceded – in the 7th minute, Tankovic scored a touchdown following a Livai pass from the front on the left flank of the penalty area, and a total failure in the center of the defense late in the first half, when Tankovic himself gave a pass on the play to Mantalos, and a hysterical goal a shot from outside the penalty area, hoping to brighten Kochergin’s end to the upper right corner. The Lugansk residents had heavy legs, although the rival gave them the right to play the first number.
Skripnik’s charges had good chances to score goals even with a critical score on the scoreboard, but Kochergin’s activity in the opposite half was clearly not enough to make up for defensive errors. In each of their attacks, the people of Luhansk either pounced on the opponent’s center block, or they gave the ball with inaccurate passes, or they fired from outside the area, which, given the nervous play of goalkeeper Tsidotas, It may not have been such a bad idea, but in the end it benefited it never did.
Match time was inexorably running out with each new failure of Zarya to build attacks in the opponent’s half, and the opponents simply managed to bring their counterplay efforts to one goal. The Greeks’ recipe for success was simple: put pressure on Tsyganiks, who was failing on his flank, and then take advantage of the incoherence between Vernidub and Abu Hannah. In general, AEK scored all his goals precisely according to this scheme. The last of them is the hardest slap to Skripnik’s team in this Euroseason: right after the ball entered play from midfield. We are observing the process of transformation of “men” into “black cats”.
The return match between this pair of teams will take place on November 26 at the Greek team’s field.
Zarya – Athens AEC 1: 4
Goals: Kochergin, 81 – Tankovic, 7, Mantalos, 34, Left, 54, 82
Zarya: Shevchenko – Khomchenovsky (Favorov, 59), Vernidub, Abu Khanna, Tsyganiks – Ivanisenya – Yurchenko, Kochergin – Kabaev (Gladky, 59) – Lunev (Nazarina, 46), Gromov (Sayadmanesh, 46).
AEC Athens: Tsidotas – Svarnas, Chigrinsky, Nedelcharu – Vasilantonopoulos, Shakhov (Shabanadzhovich, 69), Mantalos (Botos, 85), Krsticic (Galanopoulos, 85), Insua – Livaya, Tankovic (Ansarifard, 75).
Warnings: Vernidub – Mantalos, Ansarifard. Insua
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