Turning point: Safonov and Khaykin will prove their worth in the Champions League playoffs

The main stage of the playoffs starts in the Champions League. The teams where the main goalkeepers are Russians enter the fight for reaching the quarterfinals. On March 11, the first home matches of the 1/8 finals will be held: Matvey Safonov's French PSG will play with English Chelsea, and Norwegian Buda Glimt will host Portuguese Sporting.

PSG — Chelsea

Matvey Safonov continues to hold the status of the first number of PSG. It's been a month and a half since he recovered from his injury and forced Luke Chevalier out of the squad. His team managed to qualify for the Monaco Champions League play-offs in February." (3:2; 2:2), but at the same time, she lost twice to the same opponent in the French championship — 0:1 away at the end of November and 1:3 at home last weekend.

One of Safonov's goals was scored by Monegasque midfielder Alexander Golovin. The 27-year-old goalkeeper is not particularly guilty of missed goals. It is no coincidence that most of the French media gave him one of the highest marks among all PSG players for this match, since Matthew helped the team out several times.

Getting high: how Safonov leads PSG to titles

The Russian goalkeeper won the competition in the fight for the right to be the number one of the Paris superclub

But that doesn't make it any easier for him and his club — with this defeat, they once again allowed their main competitor Lance to get close to them in the table. With nine rounds to go, the Parisians are in the lead, but the gap from second place is only one point.

— We can say that in the spring there will be a decisive period for Safonov in the struggle for a place at the base of PSG, — Andrey Chervichenko, the former owner of Spartak, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — He's already done well to oust Chevalier, despite the fact that initially everything was going against Matthew, because all other things being equal, the French club will always prefer the French goalkeeper. So Safonov is really stronger now and has made good use of a series of failed matches of his counterpart. But to finally consolidate his status, he needs to bring the PSG title as the main goalkeeper. At least in the French championship. And even better in the Champions League, otherwise the Russians can be put in reserve at the first mistakes. In this sense, it is very important for him to help the club get past Chelsea after two meetings.

Chelsea is fighting in the English championship to qualify for the next Champions League draw. Nine rounds before the finish, the Aristocrats are in fifth place, and the first four teams enter the main European club tournament. The capital club is separated by three points from the third and fourth — Manchester United and Birmingham Aston Villa. There are almost no chances of winning the championship — the gap from the leading London Arsenal is already 9 points.

Bude-Glimt – Sporting

Nikita Khaykin has been the main goalkeeper of the Norwegian club since 2019, where he became the national champion four times. Only last year, the team failed to win a trophy, but it made a lot of noise in European competitions. In the spring, Buda-Glimt reached the semi-finals of the Europa League, and Khaykin was one of the main creators of this success.

In the current Champions League draw, with the Russian goalkeeper in the squad, the club first reached the group stage. The decisive matches took place in the winter, when in the last two rounds the Norwegian club needed victories over the European top clubs. And they were won — at home over Manchester City (3:1) and away over Atletico Madrid (2:1).

In February, Buda-Glimt and Khaykin went even further, knocking Inter Milan, last year's finalist, out of the Champions League at the end of the playoff round." (3:1; 2:1), the undisputed leader of the Italian championship. Now they have to compete with Sporting Lisbon to reach the quarterfinals.

Interestingly, Buda-Glimt has been playing only in the Champions League for several months now. The new season of the Norwegian championship, unlike most European national championships, which are held under the spring-autumn system, starts only on March 14. But the lack of practice does not prevent Khaykin and his team from creating sensations in the Champions League.

Their upcoming opponent in the 1/8 finals is less high-profile than the previous three. But in his country, he is historically one of the top three, along with Porto and Benfica Lisbon. In the current Portuguese championship, nine rounds before the finish, Sporting is second, four points behind Porto and three ahead of Benfica. Last weekend, the team missed a 2-2 victory over Braga, conceding a goal in the last second of the match, and significantly complicated their fight for the national championship gold, which they won in the previous two seasons.

"Bude—Glimt and Khaykin have already jumped over their heads, having reached such a stage," Dmitry Bulykin, a former striker of the Russian national team, said in a conversation with Izvestia. — The very fact of leaving the group has already been a great success, and the passage of Inter is generally fantastic. Against this background, Sporting looks like a passable opponent. The main thing is that the whole team plays to its best, and Khaykin is as reliable as in previous matches.

The return matches of the 1/8 finals of the Champions League with the participation of PSG and Buda Glimt will be held on March 17. If successful, PSG will get to the winner of the Galatasaray (Istanbul) –Liverpool pair, and Buda-Glimt will get to the best in the Bayer Leverkusen–Arsenal (London) match.