You can’t remember who started so powerfully in Russia from foreigners – from the first match and in the dead of winter. Army rookie Carrascal made all the derbies against Spartak together with another debutant Yazici. The Colombian was so good at everything that you understand – by the standards of the RPL, a star came to us. Runs, sees the field, tricks, circles, beats. Sharp and not bad, besides, in the selection, but he didn’t open the scoring with goals, although he was very close to this a couple of times.
Another potential leader of CSKA and the entire championship scored for him. Turk Yazici free-kick performed excellently. I circled the wall on the left, putting the ball in the top nine. Selikhov, who was praised throughout December, was here in the role of a schoolboy.
A year ago, Yazici was at the heart of the champion Lille, which won the French championship in the fight against PSG. Then the coach of the golden team changed, something didn’t work out for Yusuf with the new one – and now he is in CSKA. They promoted him during the transition so that many people know his last name. Already the former editor-in-chief of army TV, Ekaterina Kirilcheva, then decided to attract the attention of the people with a joke about “Natasha”. Many considered it inappropriate, insulting Russian ladies. But you can’t erase it from history. And the Turkish legionary who “pecked” at Natasha turned out to be a decent master, you can immediately see.
Two other debutant legionnaires of the Berezutsky brothers’ team did not fall out of the overall picture. Gbamen and Medina acted usefully. Midfield at CSKA is now new. And from the first match, we can say that with such guys the alignment of forces in our football can change. Also defender Fuchs finally came out at the start. A year and a half of eternal treatment, many have already given up on him. They criticized the headquarters of the club: they say, whom did you bring. And the Brazilian gave an excellent match.
Given the presence of Fernandez and Diveev from behind, the red-blues are also doing well. Now it’s time for them to rush in pursuit of the leaders. But where is the confidence that foreigners will not leave Russia against the backdrop of recent events. Legionnaire Shengelia has already “pricked up his skis” from basketball CSKA. He is not the only one who was about to leave because of the Ukrainian events. But let’s hope that the players will keep their players.
One match, of course, is not an indicator. But this is how the army newcomers played in such a composition for the first time. Carrascal arrived a few days ago (like Gbamen), spent half an hour on the field in the test match. And they interacted with Yazici and Medina as if they were playing together for more than one month. There is certainly room for progress here. If they play well, they can become competitors to the Zenit midfield.
In general, CSKA was very pleased. Yes, and Spartak was not bad. The red-whites scored at least one goal for sure. Paolo Vanoli will have to work on the implementation. He was unlucky that the debut came at the presentation of Carrascal with Yazici. They came out very bright. The Italian could hardly have expected this.
