7 greatest moments in the history of Russian sports

There will be no places or rankings. Only happiness!

1. The Russian football team with Arshavin, Akinfeev, Pavlyuchenko, Zhirkov and, of course, Hiddink played bronze in Euro 2008. The great match with the Netherlands (3:1) and the benefit performance of Andrey Sergeevich, who will soon be taken by the London Arsenal, will remain in my memory.

2-3. The Europa League had not yet been invented, the tournament was called the UEFA Cup. And the first of the Russian clubs to win it was CSKA (2005)…

… three years later, Zenit repeated the success, which removed Marseille, Bayer, Bayern and Rangers on the way to the trophy.

4. Someone remembers 1:18 and the late Romantsev era, but in 1995 Spartak Moscow with Yuran, Tsymbalar and Kechinov won the Champions League group with six (!) victories in six matches. It is a pity that before the playoffs, that team simply did not survive.

5. Our team, unfortunately, did not qualify for Euro 2000 thanks to Filimonov’s monstrous mistake at Luzhniki, but we remember the great comeback in the qualifying round and the victory over France (3:2), the reigning world champions. The author of the winning goal Valery Karpin and the goalkeeper, who still does not suspect how Andriy Shevchenko’s goal will change his career.

6. Igor Akinfeev’s leg led Russia to the 1/4 finals of the home world championship. This is not forgotten.

7 . The hockey team, after winning the 1993 World Cup, could not take gold for a long 15 years. Every major tournament was disappointing, until in 2008 the generation of Ovechkin, Semin, Radulov and Kovalchuk drove the commentators to ecstasy with a 5-4 overtime victory over Canada (5-4 OT) in Canada. Life is the best playwright.