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Europa League Qualification: FC Krasnodar – HJK

Sergey Galitskiy’s FC Krasnodar take on HJK from the capital of Finland in the last round of qualification before the Europa League group stage. FC Krasnodar have struggled this season, but the victory against Zenit St. Petersburg should have ignited their spark, which is needed as they take on Finland’s most succesful club in this crucial match. We have teamed up with Finnish football to give you this preview.

FC Krasnodar

There are little results that boost the confidence more than keeping a clean sheet in winning away to the reigning champions in any league, but when those champions are the all-powerful mega-rich Zenit St. Petersburg the boost is even greater. After two lethargic performances against Rostov and city rivals Kuban, it came as an even greater shock, especially as manager Oleg Kononov felt obliged to shuffle his pack once again. His selection of Colombian winger Ricardo Laborde ahead of 2013-2014 top goalscorer Wanderson was bold, but provided the spark they needed.

Sergey Galitskiy’s project has drawn admirers from across Russia for having the sense to build the club steadily without splashing the cash aimlessly – less than €30 million net spend in transfers since promotion to the Premier League four years ago – and for establishing one of the best youth academies in the country. To miss out on Champions League football by a matter of minutes in May was galling, but they have a chance to fulfil their European ambitions by negotiating this tricky tie with HJK.

This is only the second European campaign in Krasnodar’s short history, but they have so far managed to remain relatively unscathed after the initial mad rush of early season summer fixtures. They sit comfortably in sixth place with only one narrow defeat in competitive football so far, a 1-0 to Spartak Moscow, and without any major new injury worries they should be well set to create a first leg lead.

Having said that, their home form has been less than impressive, with their only win coming over Slovan Bratislava in the last round. The signing of former golden boy Fedor Smolov on a free was an inspired move, despite his appalling scoring record before last season of only 5 league goals in eight seasons. A loan spell at Ural Ekaterinburg showed what a complete forward he is as he was handed the responsibility of being the lone striker in a struggling side, and although he is yet to regain his form completely, he has broken his duck with his new employers, and linked up with Laborde fantastically at the weekend.

Team News

For the momentous victory in St. Petersburg, Kononov handed Stefan Strandberg his full debut to complete a three-man defence alongside captain Andreas Granqvist and opening goalscorer Ragnar Sigurdsson, and the plan to nullify Hulk and Artem Dzyuba worked brilliantly. It is highly unlikely that the same defensive setup will be employed back home, however, so a return for Wanderson is very likely.

Uzbek central midfielder Odil Akhmedov has a wealth of experience, and his calm head and passing ability may be called upon after he was rested from the starting eleven against Zenit. He has a slight frame, but his vision will be a vital to settling any nerves.

The key selection dilemma is on the wings. Laborde has struggled to make his mark in his two and bit domestic seasons in Russia, but last year he was used extensively in the Europa League, and is in pole position to capitalise on his outstanding showing on Sunday.

Other than Joaozinho, who has been out since March with a fractured tibula and is still some way off match fitness, Kononov has a fully fit squad to choose from.

Formation and Playing Style

Smolov has been used in every game so far this season as the central striker, usually in the ubiquitous modern 4-3-3 formation, with Ari on one side and either Wanderson, Vladimir Bystrov of Dmitry Torbinskiy on the other.

Unusually for a player in this position, he is not a tall or particularly muscular presence, and while this can see him drift out of games for periods, his intelligent movement is a nightmare for defenders to pick up. He will frequently switch position with Ari, who is a natural striker rather than an out and out winger, so HJK’s defence will have to work out how to pick him up early on.

Seven different midfielders have been selected already this season, so it depends on who is given the nod as to what type of threat they will pose their opponents. Akhmedov is sure to play a role tonight, after coming off the bench for only half an hour with the game to close out at the Petrovskiy stadium. He is not afraid to shoot from distance, and if he is allowed the space he will threaten the HJK goal.

Given the hectic schedule Krasnodar face, it is likely that 34-year-old Vitaliy Kaleshin will be rested for this one. Polish full back Artur Jedrzejczyk deputised in the previous round against Slovan Bratislava, and given the restrictions on foreigners in Russian football, it makes logical sense to rotate them to keep Kaleshin fresh.

Probable Line-up

Dykan – Petrov, Granqvist, Sigurdsson, Jedrzejczyk – Gazinskiy, Akhmedov, Mamaev – Ari, Smolov, Laborde

Prediction

A lot will depend on how bold HJK are for their trip to southern Russia. The conditions will be slightly hotter than Helsinki, with around 27 degrees forecast, and with a home leg to come there is less urgency in one sense. If this is the case, and Akhmedov is allowed time to dictate play, I see Krasnodar taking an advantage back to Finland, but not by a huge margin.

HJK

Finland’s most successful club side, with 27 league titles, are having a fairly difficult 2015. Despite six successive championships, with the constant pressure of being the team to beat, they are spending the current season benefitting from poor form by their nearest challengers, stumbling to low-scoring wins and draws while seldom giving a truly dominating display. Off-the-pitch, the club are run very well indeed, with a full-time (award-winning) marketing department, a transparent but effective strategy of attracting fans from Japan and several junior teams who do well at continental tournaments.

But an inconsistent transfer policy has resulted in a number of high profile flops, with big signings being moved on quickly or clearly not acclimatising. Mike Havenaar did little up front before moving to Holland, Toni Kolehmainen is yet to demonstrate why he has so many international caps while slow paperwork hampers the loan signing of Juhani Ojala from Terek Grozny. In domestic competition, HJK remain top of the league table, but last weekend were embarrassed by a 1-5 defeat to IFK Mariehamn in the Finnish cup semi-finals.

A shockingly bad performance against Astana in the third Champions League qualifying round saw Klubi drop into the Europa League, despite being ahead at numerous stages. The club quite openly state that their ambition for every European campaign is one of the group stages, but only have a Europa League group bow in 2014/15 to show for their troubles. Spirited perfomances against Torino and Copenhagen were admirable, but insufficient.

Head coach Mika Lehkosuo (a former HJK midfielder) is seen as one of the bright young managers in Finland and until recently was helping the national team but did not apply for the recently vacated role. This is his first full season in charge of the club, but pundits and critics are waiting to see if he will be able to take HJK to a consistently higher level – the jury is still out based on this season’s erratic form.

Team News

HJK will be without winger Nikolai Alho, Sebastian Sorsa, Rasmus Schüller and Veli Lampi (long-term injuries) while forwards Demba Savage and Mac Kandji are both doubtful. At time of writing, there is still no international clearance for defender Juhani Ojala.

German youth international goalkeeper Thomas Dähne made a horrible debut in goal on Saturday at Mariehamn, conceding five goals, although experienced Daniel Örlund was always likely to start this game no matter the result.

The midfield is likely to include former English league players Guy Moussi (ex-Nottingham Forest) and Formose Mendy (ex-Blackpool) and the aforementioned Kolehmainen.

There are some very promising young players who are likely to be on the bench – Roni Peiponen caused Liverpool huge problems from right-back in the recent friendly, Alex Lehtinen is a confident centre back and Obed Malolo is an influential central midfielder who has been on the radar of Aston Villa and Bayern Munich.

Formation and Playing Style

Lining up in a 4-5-1 which attempts to become a 4-3-3 in attack, but relies heavily on pace on the counter-attack, however missing Alho, Kandji and Savage completely nullifies this threat.

Ousman Jallow has played the lone striker role since the departure of Havenaar, not necessarily being the focal point but is quick to pounce on loose balls in the opposition penalty area. As most clubs will confirm, top quality strikers are hard to find, but it’s one key area that Klubi have failed to recruit since the departure of Joel Pohjanpalo to Leverkusen.

One of the more unorthodox threats comes from Ghanaian defender Gideon Baah, who was rated the top central defender in the entire Europa League campaign last season. He can be rash and quick to jump in, but he’s a very powerful left-sided player who is dangerous from set pieces and with a taste for the spectacular. He played under Lehkosuo at Honka and was a standout performer for him there.

Japanese midfielder Atom Tanaka is a very busy number 10, providing a lot of movement and has proved to be a goal threat as well. Most of the play tends to go through him, which isn’t the quickest, but he does like a through ball to the striker. Another who can pounce on loose balls in the box, several of his goals this season are a case of “right place, right time”.

Probable Line-up

Örlund – Peiponen, Heikkilä, Heikkinen, Baah – Zeneli, Kolehmainen, Moussi, Tanaka, Klinga – Jallow

Prediction

This tie is crucial for HJK in context of 2015 – the league title is a pre-requisite and Saturday’s cup defeat was an unpleasant surprise. European progress is the yardstick, and having performed so poorly in Kazakhstan, they will want to at least match last year’s group stage. The management will be delighted with a score draw, with the advantage of an artificial pitch which has attracted criticism from previous visitors.

RPL Week 5: Around the Match Day

The big story in the fifth round of the Russian Premier League was obviously the Moscow derby at Otkritie Arena between Spartak and CSKA. Both teams have started the season well, and the two rivals gave the spectators an intense and entertaining match with three goals.

CSKA fans during the derby against Spartak.

Just like the players the fans of the two teams also gave everything they got throughout the entire match, with the exception of the first five minutes. Last week a Spartak fan named Anton was stabbed in the neck, and killed, in Samara before Spartak’s away match against Krylya Sovetov. In honor of his memory both sides agreed on five minutes of silence, before they showed their choreography and started supporting their teams with loud songs and plenty of fireworks.

Spartak ultras The Union celebrated the group’s 15th birthday with an impressive showing.

41,850 spectators visited the match at Otkritie Arena, and this was 35 more than the 1,200 who attended the match between Mordovia and Ufa that was moved from Saransk to Samara because the artificial pitch at Mordovia’s stadium didn’t meet the needed requirements. To keep control of the many derby spectators the city of Moscow had appointed 4,000 police officers who did their job perfectly as no crowd trouble appeared outside the stadium.

The police officers were not the only people at work that Friday evening, as several volunteers helped out at the match. Some of these were spotted celebrating when CSKA scored, and after the match Spartak announced that none of them would ever be allowed to volunteer at Otkritie Arena again. The medical stewards had, just like the rest of the stewards, been instructed not to show any emotions during the match, an instruction they clearly failed to follow.

We did unfortunately not have a round completely without scandal and controversy, as Anzhi’s players caused problems on their plane back from the away match against Amkar. The Anzhi players were, according to some of their fellow passengers, both drunk and aggressive as they harassed both other passengers and flight attendants. When Sports.ru later contacted Anzhi to hear about the trouble on the plane, no one refused that it had happened. The defender Andrey Eschenko claimed that he wasn’t involved as he flew on economy class and not business class like his teammates, while Natalia Konstantinova from Anzhi’s communication department was also hiding behind the excuse that she wasn’t present during the incident.

What else happened?

Dmitri Tarasov played his 100th match for Lokomotiv Moscow when they drew 0-0 with Terek Grozny at home.
Rubin Kazan got their first victory this season, when they won 1-0 away against Kuban Krasnodar after a goal by Karadeniz.
Mathieu Valbuena said goodbye to Dinamo Moscow.

#	Team	MP	W	D	L	F	A	G	P
1	CSKA Moskva	5	5	0	0	8	1	+7	15
2	Zenit	5	4	0	1	10	4	+6	12
3	Lokomotiv Moskva	5	3	2	0	8	3	+5	11
4	Spartak Moskva	5	3	1	1	7	4	+3	10
5	Rostov	5	2	3	0	7	3	+4	9
6	Krasnodar	5	2	2	1	4	2	+2	8
7	Dinamo Moskva	5	2	2	1	8	7	+1	8
8	Amkar Perm'	5	2	1	2	4	4	+0	7
9	Ufa	5	1	2	2	5	6	-1	5
10	Ural	5	1	1	3	5	9	-4	4
11	Krylya Sovetov	5	1	1	3	2	6	-4	4
12	Terek Grozny	5	0	4	1	2	5	-3	4
13	Mordovia Saransk	5	0	3	2	3	5	-2	3
14	Kuban' Krasnodar	5	0	3	2	3	6	-3	3
15	Rubin Kazan'	5	1	0	4	1	7	-6	3
16	Anzhi	5	0	1	4	4	9	-5	1

RPL Week 5: Goal of the Week and Highlights

Goal of the Week: Dmitriy Stotsky, FC Ufa

Amkar Perm – Anzhi Makhachkala 1 – 1 (0-1 Boli, 1-1 Gol)

Spartak Moscow – CSKA Moscow 1 – 2 (0-1 Ignashevich, 0-2 Musa, 1-2 D. Kombarov)

Zenit St. Petersburg – FC Krasnodar 0 – 2 (0-1 Sigurdsson, 0-2 Laborde)

Kuban Krasnodar – Rubin Kazan 0 – 1 (0-1 Karadeniz)

Lokomotiv Moscow – Terek Grozny 0 – 0

Dinamo Moscow – Ural Yekaterinburg 1 – 0 (1-0 Morozov)

FC Rostov – Krylya Sovetov 1 – 1 (1-0 Poloz, 1-1 Gabulov)

Mordovia Saransk – FC Ufa 0 – 1 (0-1 Stotsky)

TABLE

1	PFC CSKA	5	8-1	15
2	ZENIT	5	10-4	12
3	LOKOMOTIV M	5	8-3	11
4	SPARTAK M	5	7-4	10
5	ROSTOV	5	7-3	9
6	KRASNODAR	5	4-2	8
7	DINAMO M	5	8-7	8
8	AMKAR	5	4-4	7
9	UFA	5	5-6	5
10	URAL	5	5-9	4
11	KRYLIYA SOVETOV	5	2-6	4
12	TEREK	5	2-5	4
13	RUBIN	5	1-7	3
14	MORDOVIA	5	3-5	3
15	KUBAN	5	3-6	3
16	ANJI	5	4-9	1