Taste the cup: what awaits our foreigners in the final round of the Champions League and Europa League

This week the overall stage in the Champions League and Europa League will be over. In the Conference League, one half of the participants of the 1/8 finals are already known - the other half will be determined by the results of the two-match confrontations in the play-off round. And we have someone to cheer for in the last week of January. Several Russian legionnaires continue to fight for the next stage. Read more in Izvestia's article.

Champions League

Aleksandr Golovin (Monaco).

Not a single Monaco match in the Champions League this season is without Golovin's participation. The Russian midfielder is one of the leaders of the Monegasques and has been dragging the team to the top for years. In this Champions League, Alexander managed to play a decent one half against Barcelona, where Monaco won, and a full match against a difficult Arsenal, one of the leaders of the APL, in London. And in the game with Benfica, Alexander even marked a goal (so far the only productive action of the Russian in this season's European Cup).

On January 29, Monaco will face another top opponent - Inter Milan, which is currently in fourth place in the table with 16 points. Monaco have 13 points and 10th place, which gives them the right to play in the knockout matches. But there is still a chance to climb into the top eight to ensure their participation in the 1/8 finals. Mathematically, it is enough for the French to draw with Inter, but it is better not to hope for a misfire of competitors such as Aston Villa, Bayer and Atalanta. They need to win to guarantee a place in the top 5. But it won't be easy, as Inter also have something to lose.

Matvey Safonov (PSG)

The former Krasnodar goalkeeper is still struggling to compete with European champion Gianluigi Donnarumma for a place in the PSG goal. At the moment Safonov has played in only two matches of Parisians in the Champions League (against Girona and Bayern Munich). And while the team has no reason to rotate for no reason - the fate of continuing to fight for the playoffs literally hangs in the balance.

There is virtually no chance of getting into the top-8, but there is a risk of dropping out of the tournament altogether. PSG are now in 22nd place with 10 points. And Manchester City, which is still "off the board", in 25th place, has eight points. So for complete peace of mind, we need to win. The opponent is quite capable: German "Stuttgart". However, it's not certain that we'll see Matvey in the game.

Europa League

Nikita Khaikin (Bude Glimt).

Norwegian "Bude Glimt" has been playing with a Russian goalkeeper for their entire Eurocup run. This season will be the 13th time Nikita will take the field in a club international match. In the summer, Haykin fought in the Champions League qualification, but his team was stood in the way by Serbian Crvena Zvezda. In the Europa League, Haykin has already played against Porto, Union, Braga, Qarabag, Manchester United, Besiktas and Maccabi. And only in the game with Belgian Union kept his gates "dry".

Before the final match of the general stage, Haikin's Bude Glimt are in 10th place in the table with 13 points. The Norwegians are not in danger of a premature exit from the European Cup, but they can go for more - they are only one point away from a direct qualification for the 1/8 finals. But it's better to win, of course. The opponent, although representing one of the leading European championships (French Ligue 1), still sits in the penultimate, 35th place in the Europa League with two points, and does not count on anything. It's about Nice.

Fedor Chalov and Magomed Ozdoyev (PAOK) versus Arsen Zakharyan (Real Sociedad).

The main task of Greek PAOK is to stay in the zone of 9-24 places to get into the playoffs. The Greeks can't expect much more than that. But it's not the time to relax either. Now PAOK has 10 points, and there are three teams from the relegation zone that can displace the Black and Whites. And they are quite strong teams: Porto, Twente and Braga.

And the team of striker Fedor Chalov and midfielder Magomed Ozdoyev will face their compatriot - midfielder Arsen Zakharyan from Spanish Real Sociedad. And if Arsen is unlikely to play in this meeting, as he just started training in the general group after another injury, then Fedor and Magomed have every chance to take the field. Chalov has played seven games in this Europa League and even scored two goals (against RFH and Ferencvaros), while Ozdoyev was left in reserve for only one game, against Viktoria Plzen. In the other six games, the Russian was an indispensable option for PAOK in the support zone, and played the last four matches in full.

As for the standings of Real Sociedad, the Spaniards have the same as the Greeks. In the table "Sociedad" follows PAOK, but has a worse goal difference (+2 vs. +4).

Conference League

Yuri Lodygin (Panathinaikos).

"Panathinaikos" Lodygin has already completed his performance in the general stage of the Conference League, where the old-fashioned tradition is to play six matches instead of the new-fashioned eight. The Greeks finished in 13th place with 10 points and will now fight for a place in the 1/8 finals in a two-match showdown with Icelandic Vikingur. The matches will take place on February 13 and 20.

The 34-year-old Lodygin, once a Russian champion with Zenit, is far from Panathinaikos' primary goalkeeper this season. But Yuri is taking his few chances successfully. In the same Conference League, both games with his participation (against HIK and Dinamo Minsk) ended with "dry" victories. Maybe this will be an argument for the head coach to give the Russian a chance to prove himself again. Especially since the opponent is not the most formidable.