In the absence of Russian clubs in the arena of international football, sports fans in our country are more or less close, but continue to watch their compatriots participating in European competitions. On Thursday night, the attention of the fans was attracted by the matches of two teams in the Conference League standings: the Andorran “Santa Coloma”, led by Dmitry Cheryshev, tried, in chess terms, to save a desperate position in the confrontation. with the Montenegrin “Sutjeska”, and “Sabah” Murad Musaeva played for the Riga RFS.
Not a dwarf at all
Dmitry Cheryshev, having left Nizhny Novgorod in the fall of 2019, had been looking for a truly “own” team for a long time, periodically acting as a television pundit. And in the end he decided to move closer to Spain, where he spent a significant part of his playing career. Cheryshev headed the Andorran Santa Coloma, from whom no one in European football, for obvious reasons, expects miracles. Among other reasons why this choice turned out to be optimal is the lack of a language barrier. The vast majority of the main team players are Spanish, two more are Andorran passport holders.
RIA News
In the first lap, Santa Coloma, unexpectedly for many, overcame the resistance of the Welsh Peningbont. At the same time, it is not worth calling the victory of the Andorrans a very strong sensation: football in the states commonly called dwarf countries has grown a lot in recent years, and the Welsh Championship is hosted by most fans. like a tournament where, in the absence of Cardiff City, it’s not worth seeing who.
But in the second round, the path of Dmitry Cheryshev’s team, by all forecasts, should have been interrupted. Although the Montenegrin “Sutjeska” does not belong to the football flagships of the former Yugoslavia, they still had to face the club from Andorra. The first match seemed to confirm this thesis: the Balkan team confidently won with a score of 2:0. But for the home match, Cheryshev prepared an excellent stock of counter-arguments, to which the Montenegrins could not find an answer. Santa Coloma scored a goal in each half, and in an extra half hour he snatched the victory. 3:2 on aggregate: The Russian coach’s European Cup campaign continues.
rapid progress
For Murad Musayev, joining the Azerbaijani “Sabah” was the first experience of working abroad. Throughout his career, he worked in his hometown, in various positions in the structure of the Krasnodar football club. And a very young Baku team, founded only in 2017, has changed under the leadership of Musaev. Murad Olegovich took over the club when it was bottom of the standings and in the first season he almost reached the medals with him. And a year later, Sabah, for the first time in its short history, became a silver medalist of the national championship and received the right to debut in a European competition. The start in the international arena turned out to be a success. In Riga, the Azerbaijanis won with a score of 2:0, and at home they achieved a decisive victory, scoring two goals at the end.
Azerbaijan Football Federation
Whats Next?
Unfortunately, the teams of Cheryshev and Musaev do not have such a chance for further feats in the tournament. The Andorrans’ next rival will be AZ from the Netherlands, while Baku will play against Partizan from Belgrade. But the fact that Santa Coloma and Sabah, little known in Europe, welcome former Champions League players to their stadiums speaks to the solidity of the Russian coaching school. But miracles in soccer still happen sometimes.
