Sergei Kiriakov has tipped the Moscow-based club to clinch the 2nd spot in the UEFA Champions League group stage table
Spartak Moscow will face http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/SL-Benfica-c40542 in the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League group stage round.
The Moscow-based club, who remained absent from the European tournament for the past 6 years, will kick start their European voyage against the 2011-12 Champions League semi-finalists, FC Barcelona at Camp Nou.
Though Rubin Kazan, another Russian outfit, had notched landmark win against the Catalans in Spain a couple of years ago, Sergei Kiriakov is of the view that Spartak will find it extremely difficult to win against the Spanish giants
despite Pep Guardiola’s shocking departure last month.
The Spanish tacticians left the Spanish outfit after winning La Liga, Copa del Rey, Supercopa de Espana, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup respectively.
However, Guardiola’s departure has not affected them on a large scale as the Spanish outfit is atop the league table after making a decent start to the league campaign under new head coach, , Tito Vilanova, this season.
Kiriakov has tipped the Moscow-based club to secure a runners-up spot in their respective group table after battling it out, for the progression to the later stages of the tournament, with Benfica and Celtic.
“Spartak have a decent chance to secure the 2nd spot on the group table ahead of the other two teams excluding Barcelona.”
“Their latest defeat in the Spanish Super Cup against Real Madrid does not indicate any thing worse. They lost the match as they had to play with ten men much of the thrilling encounter. But even in such a situation, they forced
the opponent and scored one goal.”
“I have no doubt that they will become the strongest and most powerful club in the world in near future.” The former Dynamo Moscow player was quoted as saying.
Kiriakov went on to urge the Spartachi to extend their decent European run after defeating Fenerbahce 3-2 in the play-off round on aggregate.
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