Alexander Bridge has urged Spartak to win the UEFA Champions League group stage tie against FC Barcelona and has lamented CSKA Moscow’s UEFA Europa League exit
Spartak Moscow made a deserved comeback in the UEFA Champions League, after a long absence of six years from the prestigious football tournament, following their 2nd spot finish in the Russian Premier League last term.
The Russian outfit, with the most league titles since the inception of the Russian top division, have been drawn against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/SL-Benfica-c40542 in the group stages of the continental tournament.
Spartak failed to live up to fans expectations after crashing out of the UEFA Europa League contest last season following a 5-4 defeat in the play-off round against Legia Warsaw on aggregate.
However, the Moscow-based club made some significant improvements ever since. Spartak managed to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament barely a year ago.
The Red-whites managed to record land mark victories over http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Porto-c39186,
on aggregate.
Alexander Bridge has told the Russian outfit that they should not lose heart and gave the example of Rubin Kazan’s 2-1 win over Spanish giants, FC Barcelona, at Camp Nou during 2009-10 European campaign.
The 44-year-old admitted that they will find it difficult to get a good result against the Catalans, who suffered a 2-1 defeat in the semi-finals against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 FC last term. However, Bridge tipped them to secure a 2nd
spot in the group table ahead of Benfica.
“I think Spartak can compete with Benfica in the race to progress to the later stages. Celtic is unlikely to progress. I don’t know the last time when the Scots managed to reach the next round.” The Russian Cup winner was quoted
as saying.
Commenting on CSKA Moscow early exit from UEFA Europa League, Bridge has lamented the situation, insisting that he wanted to see the Army Men playing in the later stages of the tournament.
The Red-blue crashed out of the tournament after suffering a 2-1 defeat in the play-off round against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/AIK-c38243 Fotboll.
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