Four in the element: who of the Russians stayed in the European Cup
Safonov
After the departure of Alexander Golovin's Monaco at the Champions League play-off stage, only Safonov retains a chance to win this tournament. His team already has one foot on the highest step of the podium in the French championship — the gap between the leading PSG and the nearest pursuer is 13 points. It is extremely difficult to win back this in the remaining 14 rounds.
Therefore, Parisians may well focus on the Champions League. However, they continue to compete in the French Cup. There, Safonov took the field last week in the away quarterfinal match against Stade Brasen, in which he played without conceding goals. And his team won soundly 7-0.
However, in the upcoming confrontations with Liverpool in the Champions League, PSG head coach Luis Enrique is unlikely to entrust a place at the base to a Russian. In such important matches, he will almost certainly bet on his number one, the star Italian Gianluigi Donnarumma. Before the New Year, Safonov was periodically released even in the top games of the Champions League and the French championship, but in the second half of winter they trusted him with playing time only in secondary confrontations.
Donnarumma is expected to play against Liverpool, who are leading the English League by a huge margin. Last spring, the club parted ways with its long-time head coach Jurgen Klopp, who led the Merseysiders for almost a decade, leading them to victory in the 2019 Champions League and the first domestic championship in 30 years.
But Arne Slot, who replaced him, managed to painlessly rebuild the team to new realities. As a result, now in the English Premier League, the gap from the second-placed London Arsenal is 13 points. Therefore, Liverpool, like PSG, may well send its main forces to the next stage of the Champions League, the matches of which will take place on March 5 in Paris and March 11 in Liverpool.
— There will be a very powerful confrontation between two extremely strong European top clubs, - Anatoly Byshovets, the former head coach of the Russian national team, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Given that Donnarumma is still being relied on as the main goalkeeper, it is difficult to expect Luis Enrique to prioritize the confrontation with Liverpool in any other way. Unless the Italian gets injured. As the European champion, he has a lot of experience and skill to bring success in such meetings. Therefore, Matvey will most likely have to be content with Cup matches and part of the championship games until the end of the season, where PSG has a big advantage over its competitors, and it is possible to experiment with the squad. But the fact that Safonov has already played a lot in his debut season for such a big club with such a star as the main goalkeeper suggests that our goalkeeper has made a great start in Europe.
Zakharyan
In February, the Russian midfielder returned to Real Sociedad after a long injury that prevented him from playing all season. Zakharyan quickly began to perform effective actions. First, he gave an assist in the second leg of the Europa League playoffs against Danish Midtjylland (5:2), and then scored a goal against Leganes (3:0) in the Spanish championship.
But already in that game, due to a muscle injury, he was out again and could not play last weekend in an away match with Barcelona, in which his team was defeated with a score of 4.:0. But it is possible that on March 6 Arsen will be able to take the field in the first match of the 1/8 finals against English Manchester United.
This meeting will take place on the home field of the club from San Sebastian, and in a week the second leg will be played in the UK. Manchester United has been in a severe crisis all season and is in 14th place in the English championship 11 rounds before the finish of the tournament.
— Zakharyan has fit well into the Real Sociedad squad after his injury, but unfortunately, the level of stress in Europe is still affecting him negatively,— former Russian national team striker Sergei Kiryakov told Izvestia. — Considering that the speed in Spain is an order of magnitude higher than in our country, Arsen has a very difficult time. You have to act at the limit and even beyond your physical strength, hence the damage. So, when he's in shape, he can play a good game. And it's clear that the club understands this, so they don't give up on him. But it all depends on whether Zakharyan can get used to the local pressures and stop getting injured.
Lodygin
Last season, the former goalkeeper of the Russian national team and Zenit St. Petersburg won the Greek Cup with Panathinaikos. This year, his team reached the 1/8 finals of the Conference League. On March 6 and 13, the club from Athens will play against the Italian Fiorentina.
The first match will be held in the capital of Greece, and the return match will be held in Florence. It is not a fact that Lodygin will be at the base, since he has been in reserve since mid-February. Meanwhile, Panathinaikos is in third place in the Greek championship, eight points behind the leader.
Khaykin
Nikita Khaykin has been playing for Buda-Glimt since 2019, which he left for only six months, trying to gain a foothold in English Bristol City. Our goalkeeper became the Norwegian champion four times. Last season also ended with a victory.
His team has performed well in European competitions several times. This season is no exception. She has already reached the 1/8 finals, where she will play against Olympiacos, the leader of the Greek championship.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
