A rare case in European competition! Two Russian goalkeepers played against each other
Kirill Zakatchenko July 13, 2023, 19:10 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
And Roman Eremenko made his Conference League debut at the age of 36 – yes, it’s not over yet!
“Tobol” played the first match of the first qualifying round of the Conference League with “Honka”. It seemed that there was nothing interesting for Russian fans in the game between the Kazakh and Finnish clubs? At least the fact that the place at the gates of both teams was taken by footballers with Russian citizenship. Pretty rare event!
Ivan Konovalov is Tobol’s goalkeeper. At the beginning of 2022, the footballer said goodbye to Rubin (the contract expired) and flew to Scotland. It turned out so-so. Last season, Iván was much more likely to sit on the bench than take the field. He made 10 appearances but only played four times in the Scottish Championship. Changing clubs in such a situation is quite logical. Ivan flew to Kazakhstan, where he gets stable playing practice. He has already played 17 matches in all competitions and took the field for the first time in his career in a European Cup tournament.
Maxim Rudakov represents Honka, and the rights to the goalkeeper belong to Rostov. He left for a new club in January 2022, and the loan expires at the end of 2023. By the way, the championship in Finland, as well as in Kazakhstan, is held according to the “spring-autumn” system. Rudakov has no problem with playing the game. He has already played 13 matches in the 14 championship (once Maxim was left in the reserve). And in two League Cup games he took the field with the captain’s armband. And only in the Finnish Cup does the coaching staff trust another goalkeeper.
In early 2023, Rudakov said that he was having fun in Finland:
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And Roman Eremenko also appeared in the Honka. The 36-year-old midfielder has a wealth of experience playing in Russia: he played a total of more than 200 games for Rubin, CSKA and Rostov. Last season, Eremenko played for HIFK, which came out of the Finnish “tower”. Román’s own game received good reviews in the press, but he left the team due to funding cuts. Eremenko was unemployed for five months, and then signed a contract with Honka. At first, Roman was kept in the reserve, but in the summer he regularly enters the field in the starting lineup. 12 games, three assists – such statistics from the veteran this season. And now he also debuted in the Conference League.
roman eremenko
Photo: fchonka.fi
The match itself, in terms of the bookmaker, turned out to be “riding”. The Finnish club opened the scoring shortly before the break, but had a hard time in the second half. The locals turned 0-1 into 2-1 thanks to a brace from Serbian midfielder Miljan Vukadinovic. However, Tobol could have played long enough to win with a devastating score, had Rudakov not been at the opponent’s gate. The Russian frankly saved the team several times and left it in the match before the second leg (July 20). But Konovalov had much less work – the opponent delivered only one shot on goal.
In general, the result of the match can be considered natural, because Tobol had a huge advantage. He had more ball possession (59% vs. 41%) and significantly outshot his opponent in shots (15 vs. two) and shots on goal (10 vs. one). But the result of the first game leaves passing chances for both teams.
Who else from the Russians takes part in European competitions:
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