In a fortnight’s time Celtic hit the road in the Champions League with Aiden McGeady and friends waiting in Red Square for the arrival of the hoops.
Celtic travel to the Russian capital unbeaten in a year of European away trips but that stat is likely to be overshadowed by the fact that we’ve never won away from Celtic Park.
Before we start talking about Spartak Moscow I want to highlight the improvements to the Russian League in general. The League itself switched from being a summer league to align itself with the rest of Europe. This season marks the second season of the Autumn – Spring format and it has already provided huge results.
2010-11
Europa League
Sibir Novosibirsk Playoff Round
Lokomotiv Moscow Playoff Round
Rubin Kazan Last 32
CSKA Moscow Last 16
Zenit St Petersburg Last 16
Spartak Moscow QF
Champions League
Zenit St Petersburg Playoff Round
Rubin Kazan 3rd in Group
Spartak Moscow 3rd in Group
2011-12
Europa League
Spartak Moscow Playoff Round
Alania Vladikavkaz Playoff Round
Rubin Kazan Last 32
Lokomotiv Moscow Last 32
Champions League
Rubin Kazan Playoff Round
CSKA Moscow Last 16
Zenit St Petersburg Last 16
In two seasons they have had five different teams reach the knockout stages of a European competition. That alone shows the strength and depth of this league, last season there were 5 teams within 8 points of Champions Zenit.
Another two pieces of info I want to share with you before I turn my attention to Spartak. Firstly, Axel Witsel just transferred from our other group rivals Benfica to Zenit.
At first I thought this was just money grabbing and lacked ambition. Why would you leave a team that just made the Quarterfinals of the Champions League and play in a league ranked lower than the one you currently ply your trade? It did not take much research to see that the Russian league is on the up and my prediction is that in about 3 years it will be challenging to be the fourth best league in Europe.
Secondly, Dundee United, whom I rate as the second best team in our league, got hammered 7-2 on aggregate by Dynamo Moscow. Dynamo are currently rock bottom of the Russian League with only one win in eight games so far.
So FC Spartak Moscow. They play their home games at the Luzhniki Stadium that holds 78000. Current managed by Spanish coach Unai Emery who has built a bit of a reputation for himself. During his 4 years at Valencia CF he took them from near bankruptcy and a 10th place finish and re established them as the third best team in Spain, finishing third 3 years in a row while also having to trim the wage bill and off loading talent like David Villa and David Silva.
He also made them a name in Europe again, reaching the Quarterfinals of the Europa League, then the Last 16 of the Champions League and last season got them to the Semi Finals of the Europa League.
Now he has been tasked with bringing the same kind of success to Spartak, who finished 2nd last year only 2 points behind eventual champions Zenit.
This season they have been a little inconsistent and currently lie 6th in the league after 8 games played, but not far off the top. They also had a tricky tie to qualify for the group stages and had to overcome Fenerbahce of Turkey in the non champions path.
In the summer they strengthened their squad by sign Swedish international Kim Kallstrom from Lyon and pulled of a huge coop in signing current Brazilian international Romulo for a measly 8 million. This lad is top quality defensive midfielder that can also score. He could be moulded into a Patrick Vieira type box to box player. I rate him just behind Neymar and Ganso as Brazilian hope for the future. He will play for Brazil in the 2014 World Cup.
Spartak sign someone around this price tag every year, last season it was Emmanuel Emenike and Aiden McGeady the year before. They have money and spend it wisely on players they could then sell on for a profit, if needs be. No wasted money that I can see and definitely no “silly” money thrown around. They also acquired Dutch International Demy De Zeeuw from Ajax who is another excellent player.
Formation wise they like to play a 4-4-1-1, usually with two wingers and someone if a free role behind a target man. This is what I think their strongest team is.
Dikan
Makeev Suchy Insaurralde D Kombarov
K Kombarov Romulo De Zeeuw McGeady
Ari
Wellington
The player that has impressed me most so far is their Russian international left back Kombarov who links up well with McGeady and chips in with a few goals. Currently he is their top goal scorer but it is his range of passing that catches the eye and he is very comfortable on the ball. He will be very dangerous for us if mcGeady also turns up when we play we will have a lot of trouble coming down the right hand side.
Still there are flaws in this team. The concede a lot of goals and have only had one clean sheet this year. I don’t think Emery has decided who the best centre backs are and they have to rely on 35 year old keeper Dikan who has not looked very sure of himself. Until they strengthen in these two areas they will continue to concede and I really think we will score against them in both legs. The question is can we stop them from scoring?
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Be good to see mcgeady again think he will get a great reception at Celtic park still one of the bhoys hail hail