13 years ago, CSKA reached the 1/4 finals of the Champions League. The decisive goal of Sevilla was scored by a newcomer to the Slutsky team

In autumn 2009, CSKA had to start in the group stage of the Champions League. It all started with a draw, which gave the army team a killer quartet with Manchester United, Wolfsburg and Besiktas. In 2021, such a lot could be assessed with only one forecast.

CSKA started badly. A hat-trick by Grafite, and Alan Dzagoev’s goal didn’t decide anything anymore – 1:3 in Wolfsburg.

Two consecutive home matches brought the team of Juande Ramos three points – a victory over Besiktas (2:1 with goals from Dzagoev and Krasic) and a defeat from Manchester United (0:1).

And then CSKA changed their coach – right in the middle of the group stage. Leonid Slutsky arrived at Old Trafford and by the break found his team leading by two goals. But what about the break: by the 80th minute, the scoreboard of the legendary stadium showed 1:3 in favor of the guests.

Manchester United still equalized, but this match seems to have given great psychological confidence to the army team.

At the end of November, the Muscovites scored an important strong-willed victory over Wolfsburg (2:1, Necid and Krasic) and came to the last round with seven points in their luggage. As did the Germans. But the German champion had an advantage in personal meetings, so in Istanbul CSKA had to take more points than Wolfsburg at home with unmotivated Manchester United.

It’s been a real drama! In the 41st minute, Milos Krasic scored on Inenya, but in the 86th minute, Bobo knocked down the army team, equalizing the score. But on December 8, 2009, everything was in favor of Russian football: at the same moment, Michael Owen sent the winning goal against Wolfsburg, and after several attacks scored a hat-trick – 3:1.

But that’s not all: in stoppage time, Evgeny Aldonin somehow ended up in the penalty area of ​​the Turks and made the playoffs as convincing as possible. Delight!

Note that the Champions League came out rich in surprises. For example, in the groups, Juventus finished the performance (Bordeaux took the first place, and Bayern – only the second), Atlético (Porto missed ahead) and Liverpool (Fiorentina and Lyon took English 10 points out of 12).

And in that draw, a completely absurd quartet competed today – Sevilla, Stuttgart, Uniria, Rangers. The Spaniards took first place and got to CSKA in the 1/8 finals.

In winter, CSKA pulled off a landmark transfer: the midfielder of the Dutch Venlo Keisuke Honda joined the team. The Japanese immediately joined the squad and started at the start for the first game against Sevilla. Alvaro Negredo in the 25th minute made 30,000 spectators sad at the Luzhniki stadium, but in the second half Mark Gonzalez (health to him!) made the score more acceptable for the second leg.

And on March 16, 2010, after the first half of the game at Ramon Sanchez Pisujan, the guest goal was won back: Necid scored just before the break, and Diego Perotti hinted at overtime.