On August 29, 2013, on Thursday, a match was held between the Moscow Spartak and the Swiss St. Gallene. For the “red-white” European-cup season ended without having time to begin. It was a return match of the Europa League in Khimki, where Valery Karpin’s wards were defeated with a score of 2: 4. Note that the first meeting that took place in Switzerland ended at night with a score of 1: 1.
As for the home match, already in the first minute the Spartaks opened an account thanks to the efforts of midfielder Araz Ozbiliz. However, relaxing at the end of the half, they missed two goals in just five minutes. With a score of 1: 3, the owners could not recoup. This did not prevent the audience from enjoying several acute moments, especially when Yura Movsisyan tried to take advantage of the Swiss goalkeeper in the 83rd minute, to which St. Gallen answered, scoring the fourth ball into the gates of the Spartakovites.
Such results struck not only the audience, but Karpina, who expressed his readiness to resign on one of the post-match comments if someone wants it. However, the coach entrusted the guilt for such a failed game on the players themselves, saying that this was the result of the assumption of individual errors.
Jeff Zayben, head coach of St. Gallen, noted that he simply does not believe in what is happening. He needs time to understand what happened. In addition, he recalled that for only two years his team played in the second league, but now she managed to beat Spartak, and on his own field, and get into the group stage of the Europa League.
In addition, Zayben honestly admitted that he did not expect to hear the applause of the Saint Galen team from Spartak fans (they could be heard after each of the halves). At the same time, the work mentor of Spartak appreciated their fans negatively – they threw coaching benches with scarves, which depicted the symbolism of the club.
