UEFA Champions League – Match Review: FC Copenhagen versus FC Rubin Kazan 1-0
Copenhagen took on Rubin Kazan in their first group stage match of the UEFA Champions League 2010-2011. It was a remarkable experience for both the teams who are considered as minnows in this year’s competition considering their past European Cup history. Nonetheless, it was an exciting contest to that had quite an eventful ending.
Copenhagen started the match with a four-four-two formation, which is the oldest known in the game of football. With two strikers up front, four midfielders and the final back four, their opponents also adopted similar strategy but their midfielders played in slightly defensive roles.
Rubin Kazan and Copenhagen are both famous for their triumphs over Manchester United and Barcelona in the past. Last year in the 2009-2010 UEFA Champions League, where Barcelona eventually reached the final match of the tournament, they were coupled in a group alongside Rubin Kazan and Inter Milan. In the home leg, Barcelona lost against Rubin in a surprising result whereas in the away tie, they only managed to get a draw. Nonetheless, for the rest of the campaign, Rubin were below par and thus failed to qualify for the round of sixteen in last year’s Champions League.
On the other hand, their opponents, Copenhagen defeated Manchester United in their home leg in the 2007-2008 version of the competition; it was a memorable triumph for the Danish champions who have admittedly not performed well at European football’s highest level.
Copenhagen opted for experience in their midfield as their manager played Jesper Grønkjær on the right wing. The ex-Chelsea man brought a lot of European cup experience to the relatively inexperienced Copenhagen line up. Alternatively, Rubin started with Obafemi Martins up front. The ex-Inter Milan man, who used to play in Italy in the earlier part of his career, was used by the Eastern European giants in an attempt to get a bunch of goals during the match.
In the 4th minute of the match, Rubin had their first chance to get a shot off on the target but the effort by Christian Noboa who was passed in by Carlos Eduardo, was deflected over the goal post. From the ensuing corner, Rafal Marawski tried his luck with a well taken volley but the ground shot was well handled by Rubin Kazan’s goalkeeper. The first half went on with both the sides lacking the cutting edge to penetrate each other’s defences.
In the 27th minute of the match Oscar Wendt swung in a delicious, curling cross from which Dame was just inches away. If the Copenhagen striker had made contact, it would surely have resulted in a lead for his team; however the ball missed his foot by a whisker. In the 41st minute of the match right before the half time whistle, Obafemi Martins had a very good chance to score for Rubin but he didn’t make contact with the ball and the score line stayed at 0-0.
After the match resumed, Rubin dominated the possession early on and in the 67th minute of the match, they almost broke forward to their benefit as Syarhey Kornilenko side footed attempt on Copenhagen’s goal was just centimetres above the bar. The first booking of the match went to Aleksandr Orekhov, who mistimed his tackle on Santin at the half way line of the field. It was a needless booking for the Rubin Kazan man.
In the 69th minute, Jesper Gronkjaer had Copenhagen’s first proper chance of the match but the winger was denied a goal only because of the marvellous save that Sergey Ryzhikov had pulled off.
At the death, Copenhagen sensed the inevitable and as a result started to push forward more often and they got their reward as in the 87th minute of the match Dame N'Doye got their goal after he was played in by Martin Vingaard. Doye’s goal was the only goal of the match as Copenhagen ended up as eventual winners by a score line of 1-0.
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