UEFA Europa League Qualification Review: Anorthosis 1-2 vs. CSKA Moscow
Russian club football giants CSKA Moscow took on Anorthosis from the Cypriot First Division in the second leg of the Europa League qualification play-off match in Cyprus. The match took place in the Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium in Cyprus. The referee and his team for the match belonged to Romania; the match official’s name was Alexandru Deaconu and his linesmen on the night were George Vidan and Sebastian Gheorghe.
In the first leg of the two legged play-off, the match took place in Moscow and was dominated by CSKA, with the eventual score-line four goals to nil in favour of the Russians. Therefore, Anorthosis had a hard task on their hands in the second leg as not only did they have to match the four goals scored by CSKA in the previous leg, but they also had to keep Moscow’s attacks at bay. Anorthosis started with two strikers upfront in an attempt to get as many goals as possible from the start of the match. On the other hand, CSKA started with Zoran Tosic, the ex-Manchester United winger, on the left wing so that they could exploit the width of the pitch and stretch the Anorthosis defence.
In the opening minutes of the match, disaster struck for Anorthosis, as one of their most brilliant players, Laborde injured his hamstring in the 19th minute of the match and he had to be substituted by Concistre. The first yellow card of the match went to Mamaev from CSKA Moscow’s ranks as he rashly tackled an Anorthosis defender. This booking took place in the 21st minute of the match. Pavel Mamaev was also CSKA’s first player to get booked in the second leg of the qualification play-off.
Anorthosis started off confidently and pushed towards the CSKA goal in order to get themselves an opening goal. As the minutes passed by, tension grew in Anorthosis’ home stadium as the crowd realized that there was little time left for their team to find five goals without a reply, something that would surely take them to the next stage of the tournament. Whenever CSKA Moscow got the ball, it seemed as if they were deliberately trying to play for a draw, as their players already were well aware of the four goal lead that they took into the second leg of the two legged qualification encounter.
In the first half, the lack of urgency from CSKA in terms of attack meant that the match was fairly dull and lacked a considerable amount of goal mouth action. In the 31st minute of the match, Ramos of Anorthosis had a good opportunity to open the scoring as the winger took on his man and cut inside the half, but it was all to no avail as his eventual shot on the target went wide of the goal. The second yellow card of the match was shown by the referee to Garcia of Anorthosis for his dangerous challenge on Pavel Mamaev.
Right after the booking took place, CSKA Moscow had a good chance of opening the score and taking their accumulative lead to five goals as Doumbia failed to get at the end of Tosic’s cross from Moscow’s left wing in the 36th minute of the first half. P. Frontini from Anorthosis became the third player to get booked in the match after his late tackle on Zoran Tosic of CSKA Moscow in the 39th minute of the match. From the ensuing free kick, Zoran Tosic almost opened the scoring but was denied by the Anorthosis goalkeeper, Kozácik.
In the 42nd minute of the match, Cafu had an excellent chance to score from a corner kick for Anorthosis, but his header failed to trouble the CSKA Moscow goalkeeper, Igor Akinfeev. The fourth yellow card of the night went to Georgiou after the player tried to impede CSKA’s striker Seydou Doumbia right before the half time whistle was blown by the referee. At halftime, both the teams were dead locked at nil all.
The second half started with Anorthosis on the front foot, but CSKA almost found the back of the net with Doumbia in the 51st minute of the match, as his shot missed the far post of the Anorthosis goal by a whisker. In the 60th minute of the second half, the second substitution of the match took place for Anorthosis as V. Sielis was replaced by Vidovic.
Despite the fact that Anorthosis had plenty of possession in the second half, the Cyprian club lacked the ability to penetrate beyond the CSKA Moscow defence. In the 62nd minute, Honda came on for CSKA Moscow in place of Mamaev as Moscow used their first substitution of the match. Moscow’s second change of the match came in the 68th minute of the second half, as Tosic went off as Gonzalez came on take the former Manchester United player’s place.
In the 75th minute of the match, Cafu scored with a right foot shot for Anorthosis, but it seemed fruitless because of the large goal deficit that already faced Anorthosis from the first leg. However, Anorthosis’ goal prompted an immediate reply from CSKA and the Russians successfully got their equalizer in the 85th minute through Seydou Doumbia. At the death, Mark Gonzalez stole the win for CSKA with a remarkable strike from about twenty five yards out. The eventual 2-1 loss for Anorthosis means they have been knocked out of the tournament and Moscow have progressed to the group stages of the UEFA Europa League.
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