Goalkeeper of the year: Safonov in the semifinals, Khaykin is one step away from this achievement

In the second leg of the 1/4 final of the Champions League, PSG lost to Aston Villa 2:3, but advanced to the next stage on aggregate (5:4). This means that for the first time in many years, Russian football player and goalkeeper Matvey Safonov will be in the semifinals of the main European cup. Nikita Khaykin, another Russian goalkeeper, is also close to the semi—finals of the Europa League. His Buda-Glimt sensationally defeated Lazio in the first match in Norway (2-0) and created an excellent foundation before the second leg in Rome.

Two matches

Matvey Safonov, a pupil of Krasnodar, is not very happy with the result, but he is happy anyway.

— In general, emotions are mixed, — the goalkeeper wrote in his Telegram channel. — It's very strange to lose and be happy, but we made it to the semifinals, and that's the main thing! As far as I'm concerned, they've made life difficult for themselves once again. It was obvious that after the score was 2-0, they started playing a little impressively in our favor. That's why the opponent has so many chances, and we have three goals conceded. A lot of work has been done, I'm proud of my guys! We are working and moving on. Congratulations to all the fans on getting to the semifinals!

Safonov joined PSG in the summer of 2024 and is currently losing the competition to the main goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma. At the same time, the Russian cannot be called a "deaf" reserve — he played in eight French championship matches, four cup matches and appeared twice in the Champions League.

Safonov played his first match in the main European cup for PSG at the very beginning of the general stage — he scored against Girona (1-0). The second match turned out to be less successful, but more striking in the signage — Matvey got into the start against Bayern, but the Parisians lost 0-1 dry.

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Matvey Safonov's PSG will play with Aston Villa in the Champions League, and Nikita Khaikin's Buda-Glimt will play with Lazio in the Europa League.

Safonov made a scoring mistake, and then intercepted the goal guard in the Champions League and did not release Donnarumma yet. The Italian is conducting the 2024/25 European Cup campaign very well and has really saved PSG several times by leaving the team in the tournament.

Safonov is not bothered by this — after another brilliant performance by Donnarumma in the match against Liverpool (1-1, 4-1 on penalties), he said that the success of his competitor only motivates him.

— The last match was great for Alisson, and Gigi played this match very strongly, — Safonov emphasized. — I cleaned a lot on the exits, helped out a couple of difficult moments. I hope that I am helping him grow professionally, because his confident game, in turn, encourages me to train even more and be ready to show results at the same level.

The Magic of Cheryshev

Although not in the status of the main goalkeeper, Safonov still reached the semi-finals of the Champions League. The last time Dmitry Alenichev reached this stage before Matvey was with Porto in the 2003/04 season. Our midfielder was the main player in that team — he played in nine matches, including the final against Monaco (3-0), in which Alenichev scored. At the semi-final stage with Deportivo, Dmitry entered the field in the first game (0-0), and watched the return game (1-0) from the bench.

It's a funny paradox, but the last time a Russian reached the semi-finals of the Champions League was more than 20 years ago, and he won the main European cup less than 10 years ago. How did it happen? The magic of Denis Cheryshev.

The winger started the 2015/16 season with Real Madrid and played in three matches of the Champions League group stage. Cheryshev spent a total of 41 minutes on the field (almost five times less than Safonov this season), and in February 2016 he went to Valencia, in whose T-shirt he watched Madrid's victory in the Champions League final.

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At the same time, the minutes spent for Real Madrid in the tournament were enough to qualify for a medal. So technically Cheryshev became the winner of the Champions League, although he did not play in the semifinals, finals, or even in the playoffs.

Safonov's season is going great — the Russian has already become the champion of France, won the Super Cup of the country. It remains to win the Cup (PSG in the final) and the Champions League, then Matvey will formalize the quadruple. Russian football players definitely do not have such achievements — it will be a powerful start to a European career!

Khaykin's Breakthrough

A modest Norwegian club led by Russian goalkeeper Nikita Khaikin has already made a good noise in the current Europa League draw. In the first round of the playoffs, he dropped Twente out of the tournament." (1:2, 5:2), in the second, Olympiacos" (3:0, 1:2).

And Bude also has great stats at its Aspmira stadium in LE — five wins in six matches. Only Qarabag came away with a 2-1 victory, while all the other opponents came away with nothing. And Lazio was no exception.

The Romans acted rather passively, as if they had entered the match in order to keep the zeros on the scoreboard, rather fly away from cold Norway, and then pick up their own in Italy. The visitors scored just one shot on target before the break. Bude had two of them, but they noticeably outperformed their opponents in scoring chances.

Lazio didn't cause Nikita Khaykin any problems. Perhaps the most interesting moment was with Gustav Isaksen, but the Dane's blow landed on the head of the Buda football player. The Norwegian club had more possession of the ball before the break (59% to 41%) and played by 0.68 xG. For Italians, this figure did not exceed 0.25.

In the second 45 minutes, the numbers on the scoreboard changed. Ole Blomberg, instead of hitting from the penalty area, rolled at Ulrik Saltnes, who calmly outplayed Hristos Mandas. Surprisingly, the goal did not cheer up the guests: a little more than 20 minutes later, the hosts scored the second — Saltnes scored a double, knocking over the goalkeeper. Alessio Romagnoli had already scooped the ball behind the ribbon, so English referee Michael Oliver pointed to the center of the field.

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At the end of the meeting, the "funeral" of the Italian club could take place. Saltnes scored a hat-trick, but he hit the goalkeeper. 0:2 is not such a bad result for the Romans, considering the statistics.: Bude hit the goal more often (18 shots against six) and scored 2.88 xG (the opponent — 0.34). Lazio retained, albeit small, chances to change the situation at home.

It's nice that our goalkeeper Nikita Khaykin played in all the matches on the European league "Buda-Glimt" path, starting from the group stage and ending with the 1/8 finals. At the moment, Khaikin has 17 goals conceded in 13 matches of the tournament, as well as three "dry" meetings. It's not the most outstanding result, but still it's worth making allowances for the overall level of the team compared to the rivals. In this sense, Buda-Glimt's entry into the semifinals will be a huge sensation.