Representing A Continent

Luke is back in it deep and ready to go!

It took an 86th minute penalty from captain Harry Kane, but Tottenham Hotspur ran out 1-0 winners over CSKA Moscow in their Europa League first knockout round opening leg tie.

As the harsh conditions of the Russian winter continued, Harry Kane ensured his team's five game winning streak also continued. The London based side came into the matchup heavy favourites, especially after their recent form which has seen just one loss in nineteen games, and despite the conditions managed to edge out the plucky Russian side.

Despite clearly being on top, controlling the game well and not losing the ball, Tottenham struggled to create many chances against a stern CSKA team. The Russians, who beat both Inter Milan and Atlético Madrid in this year's European campaign, couldn’t find the same magic they had in the previous games and were under pressure for the majority of the game.

But with not long left in the game it seemed as thoughLuke Hendricks’ side had done enough to take a draw into the second leg. However, a push on Eric Dier gave Spurs the opportunity from the spot in which Harry Kane duly delivered. The goal was Kane’s seventeenth in all competitions this year and it brought much delight to his manager.

“A well earned victory I believe. They made it tough for us and we had to work hard to get anything from them. As many teams have learnt this season, coming here isn’t easy especially when it is as cold as it was this evening. But we fought hard, kept applying the pressure and it came off in the end. We now have a tough game at the weekend before we host CSKA at home next week. We are happy to have the away goal but we know they will throw everything at us so we need to stay concentrated,” stated long time Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino.

With Spurs having a Premier League match against 14th place Newcastle at the weekend, CSKA Moscow will have a week's rest in preparation to turn the deficit around. As the Russian League prepares to return a week after their Europa League second leg, Luke Hendricks made it clear where the team's focus lies.

“It was a tight game but one in fairness the better team came out victorious. We worked hard and fought well which was great to see in our first competitive match in over two months, so I am pleased with that. But we can’t have any excuses and now know what is needed to push on in this competition. We want to go as far as we can and if we can fix some errors we made today I am still very confident we can be in the draw for the next round” said Luke Hendricks.

What CSKA will need to do to get through is score, at least once and hope to drag the game to penalties, but to be certain of victory, they need to score twice. That feat hasn’t been achieved by any team against Spurs in their last seven home games. In that time only four goals have been scored by the away side, showing the challenge Moscow face. With Nikola Vlasic now at Juventus and Matko Miljevic, who made his competitive debut against Spurs, still finding his feet at CSKA, creativity is something the side will be needing next week.

It’ll be interesting to see how things plan out at CSKA this week with the Russian Premier Leagues transfer window closing two days before the second leg. The time between the games could also see the return of influential right back Mário Fernandes who missed leg one with a pulled calf. For Tottenham they will be looking to continue an excellent run of form.

Replies

tedbroUnfortunately due to registration rules majority of them weren't avalible for the games against Spurs, hopefully they can show their quality in the domestic campaign!
Scott:Russia seems the perfect place to get some proper first team gametime and play against good competition especially for some players who have seen progression slow due to a lack of gametime.
Jack: A tough return to the games for Luke but Spurs were always going to provide a tough test. Hopefully they can get something from the second leg.
Justice:Agreed. It has certainly been a tough time off the pitch for Luke and if he can make it through this despite those troubles, the only way is up!
Griffo:Ready to go but a stumbling block thrown in his way already. How many straws will it take to break the camels back.

Tough result to take, but the tie is certainly not over. Spurs will be heavy favorites, but CSKA could surprise them

You made Spurs work hard for the win which is great work. If nothing comes of the second leg in London then the money you will have received from this Champions League run will be a fantastic boost in the clubs finances.

Spurs have been a side in great form and to perform as admirably as CSKA did given they hadn't been a competitive game in so long was fantastic. A lot of poisitves can be taken from that performance and it shows great character. It'll be tough to overturn this loss but Hendricks knows his side aren't expected to do that. The pressure is off and that could really help his team.

Going to have to come to London and attack!

It's Spurs. They'll bottle it.

Tottenham Hotspur have secured a 3-0 aggregate victory over CSKA Moscow, sealing their place in the Second Knockout Round of the Europa League thanks to goals from Dele Alli and Harry Kane.

Tottenham Hotspur went into the second leg of their tie with CSKA Moscow knowing they needed just a draw to ensure their path into the next round. But goals from Dele Alli and another penalty late into the game, similar to the first leg, from Harry Kane, meant Spurs sailed into the next draw.

A challenging task for CSKA was made even tougher when Luis Olivera was shown a straight red card just eighteen minutes into the game. Clearly furious, Luke Hendricks sacrificed midfielder Volodymyr Shepelev, who recently signed a new contract with the club and bought on Georgy Schennikov.

Despite the one man difference, CSKA continued to challenge the Spurs goal and Arnór Sigurðsson should have put the Russian side ahead on the brink of halftime. However, the Icelandic international saw his shot go just past the post, sending the sides into the dressing rooms with the game still scoreless.
The first goal of the game did come ten minutes into the second half, with Dele Alli getting the goal with a nicely placed finish. Spurs piled on the pressure in the second half with Igor Akinfeev making a total of nineteen saves in the game.

However, he couldn’t keep the English team from scoring a second with a harsh handball decision given against new CSKA signing Matko Miljevic. Kane, the England captain, made no mistake from the spot confirming Spurs’ place in the next round. That next round could see a number of tough opponents for Tottenham who are still fighting on numerous fronts. An EFL Cup Final against Chelsea this coming Sunday is then followed by an FA Cup 5th Round tie against top of the Premier League Liverpool. In terms of the Premier League, Spurs are ten points off the leaders and have a tough battle on their hands to stay in the top four with Manchester United and Arsenal just four points behind him.

For CSKA Moscow they kick off the second part of the domestic season with a Kubok Rossii quarter final against Krasnador. They then play 8th placed Arsenal Tula in the first game back in the league season. With twelve games still to play, CSKA sit top of the league by four points with a game in hand over second placed Lokomotiv Moscow. However, Spartak Moscow who are currently 3rd have a game in hand over the league leaders and sit five points behind. Luke Hendricks assessed the final matches in his post match interviews following the defeat to Spurs.

“We move on now, it’s all we can do. We are in a great position in the league at the moment but we have to go into the last twelve games with that same focus we have had throughout the season so far. Everyone else will be targeting us and we need to prove we deserve our league spot.” stated the CSKA boss.

Hendricks’ side will be boosted by transfer deadline day signing of Alexandr Sobolev, who joined for a fee of £7,500,000. The striker joins having been named the 2018 Russian Premier League Young Player of the Season and still aged 23, has impressed in the last couple of seasons. Scoring ten in twenty-three last season and adding six in seventeen this year for Krylya Sovetov, CSKA made their move. This move also increases the competition for the striker role with current starter Fedor Chalov failing to score in his last ten competitive games.


Despite this, Luke claims Chalov isn’t being immediately replaced by the incoming Sobolev, and he has full faith in Chalov.

“Fedor (Chalov) is a brilliant player who is still very young. It is natural for these youngsters to go through phases like he is. I have no doubt that Fedor will be back to his scoring ways very soon. He has had to play a large volume of games in the last few seasons due to a lack of squad depth and that is on me as his manager. By bringing in Alexandr (Sobolev) we bring added depth and another level of competition which will only help the team going forward” an adamant Hendricks said.

With CSKA out, the only other Russian side in the Europa League, Zenit St. Petersburg, are also out as they lost 5-2 on aggregate to Genk.

The draw for the second knockout round will be drawn tomorrow, with some of Europe's biggest teams still in the mix. Liverpool, Napoli, Roma and Juventus are all potential opponents for Tottenham in the next round.

Replies

Syb: Unfortunately not
Jack:The club wasn't expected to get this far considering the Champions League group so we can be happy nonetheless.
Scott:We just couldn't get going against a very good side and as much as that's frustrating, it would have been asking too much at this stage to expect qualification.
Griffo: We tried, but couldn't quite manage it.
Justice: Agreed, want my money back from SI for making an unrealistic game...they make billions anyway so it shouldn't matter...

That's very unfortunate. An early red-card made the task even harder for CSKA, but once that first goal went in followed by a cruel handball decision resulting in a converted penalty, heads naturally dropped and Spurs finished the job.

Sobolev looks a good option to compete with Chalov. Two young, talented forwards who both comply with homegrown rules. Impressive.

Unfortunate to go out but you did it honourably. Good to keep the pressure on Chalov with added competition up there too!

At least you gave it a good shot and you now have plenty of time to concentrate on the leage

Unlucky I guess. Not how you would have wanted the European campaign to go but you can be proud of how you acquitted yourself.

Heartbreaker

Looks like CSKA are doing good business in transfers. Crazy that they beat Atletico and Inter wihtout any particular newgen standing out! Love to see who your next opponent will be!

2nd March 2021

The death of Luke Hendricks' parents had ended any communication between myself and “the man behind the phone”. I don’t know if that was because he had something to do with it or just purely coincidental. I decided to not guess which it could be. For now I was happy. I felt safe again. I had my normal life back and my wife was weeks from giving birth, life couldn’t get better.

I also had an exclusive interview with Luke Hendricks, just a day before they returned to competitive domestic action against Krasnodar in the Kubok Rossii. As CSKA Armyia continued to grow, our opportunities increased and therefore when the club got in contact with the potential chance for the interview we jumped.

Welcome back to CSKA Armyia, today we have a very exciting episode. We will be speaking to CSKA Moscow boss Luke Hendricks in an exclusive interview just a day before our return to action in the Kubok Rossii against Krasnador.

Good Morning Luke, how are you doing today?

Hello Sergei, hello everyone, thank you for having me. I am doing well thank you, looking forward to the second half of the season starting tomorrow.

You mention the game tomorrow, we’ve gone one further in this competition already this season compared to last year. How important is progression for this team?

Personally, I think progression is one of if not the most important thing for a football club and life itself. At best, without progression you are stagnant and whilst that can be ok for a short period of time you are not getting anywhere with it. Progression shows how a club is improving and is the only way to be a success. That is what we and everyone associated with this football club wants. Success. Therefore that progression is needed. Last year we didn’t claim any silverware so to be a step closer than we were last year to winning this competition, we are happy.

That success is of course very important which is why the loss to Tottenham was a hard one to take. Despite how tough the loss was tough, what are your thoughts on the European campaign this season?

It was a tough one for sure. As I’ve said, progress is the biggest thing for us and in reality we took a step back this year in getting knocked out a stage earlier than we did last season. However, we have to realize the incredible performances we saw in the Champions League in what was the toughest group we could have hoped for. To beat both Inter Milan and Atlético Madrid is a great accomplishment so we can be proud of that. We also put in two good games against Spurs who overall were the better team at the end of the day. It was tough to be without a key player in Mário Fernandes and to also concede two penalties over the tie, but these are things we will need to deal with. Experiences are there to be learnt from so I believe we can do that and grow from what was a very tough European campaign.

Can we get any confirmation on whether Mário Fernandes will be fit and available for tomorrow?

Mario will be fit, that I can confirm, yes. The injury was never a major one but when it’s a pulled muscle like Mario had we prefer to verge on caution than risk him and potentially lose a player for a lot longer. But for tomorrow, Mario will be ready.

Mário Fernandes returning is a massive boost, but one player we certainly won’t have back is Nikola Vlasic. How big of a loss is that for this squad?

I think pretty much everyone in the world of football knows just how good Nikola Vlasic is and obviously that will be tough to replace. Anytime you lose a player who has scored ten goals in sixteen and has five assists on top is a hard one to take but Nikola got a big move to a great side in Juventus. He’s started off very well there and we are all happy for him. But he is gone and we can’t focus on what has happened now. We look to the future and we are very excited about the abundance of talent we have here. Konstantin Kuchaev is a very talented young man who has been in and around the first team for many years now and we of course bought in Matko Miljevic.

Matko is an incredible player who at just nineteen has so many years still ahead of him and for what we paid, I don’t think there is a better player in his role in the world. We are very happy with how he is adapting and I think we can all expect to see some brilliant performances from him in the coming weeks and months.

Matko Miljevic wasn’t the only player joining this winter either. What can we expect from the likes of Alexandr Sobolev and Jesús Vallejo?

Yes, two more players we are very excited about. Alex is another youngster who has a heap of potential and we are very much looking forward to seeing what he can produce here. It was only last year he scored ten goals in twenty-three games. His tally of six in seventeen this year is also impressive and we believe with the quality we have he can be even more impactful here. It will be a good competition between Alex and Fedor for that starting role.

Jesús is another exciting name to join. He was once tipped to be one of the best center backs in the world. Unfortunately a few injuries have stopped his progression to this point, but anyone who watched the English Premier League last year saw just how good this man is. He also provides us with some great leadership qualities having been a former captain of both Real Zaragoza and Spain Under 21s.

The club throughout history has also placed a large focus on youth development. It was announced a new group of players had joined the Under 18s for this year's annual intake. Are there any standouts in your opinion?

We are and it is something to be proud of that many of those in the starting lineup most weeks have played in the youth system here. The likes of Fedor Chalov, Igor Akinfeev and Vadim Karpov all began their careers here and still have a major role in the club. We look to continue that and there are some great players with a large amount of potential in this latest group as well.

The two standouts for me have to be Igor Titov and Denis Dvornikov, both who could be Russian internationals in the future if they put their mind to it in my opinion. Igor is a talented young winger whilst Denis, a terrific passer will be a great attacking midfielder in the future if he puts in the work.



What are the goals for the rest of this season? How do you foresee it going?

Well, we always have the same goals at the start of every season, to be the best we can be, which I understand is very cliche. So far we have been impressive and I am very happy that we sit top of the league for sure. However, the season still has a long way to go and we need to continue those impressive performances to ensure we end the season on top. The initial goal will be to secure Champions league qualification again and then we can focus on winning the title which will be a great way to end the year.

Finally, with those being short term goals, what can we expect in the future from this club with you in charge?

Well as a theme I think of this interview, progression. We want to get better year in year out so that would be winning the league and then being consistent in retaining it. We also want to improve in Europe. It’ll be tough there as it’s the best teams in the continent but we want to be getting out of the group stages of the Champions League and eventually be seen as a real challenger for the Champions League title. It won’t be easy and it won’t happen straight away but we want to progress and get better and eventually that will be where we get to, I hope.

Some major goals there. Thank you Mr Hendricks, good luck for tomorrow and hopefully we can sit down with you again soon.

With that, my time with Luke was over. It was an unreal experience for me. For months I was following this man around, providing information on him for someone I didn’t even know. Now, he had kindly sat down with me for over thirty minutes answering questions when only a few months ago his parents had been murdered and tomorrow he had a massive game to focus on.

In the midst of guilt, my phone vibrated.

“Sergei, get home quick! The baby is on its way”

Replies

Scott:It was a tough one and unfortunately we couldn't pull it off, the red certainly made it much harder. That was definitley the benefit of getting Sobolev as homegrown players are something we lack in at the moment.
Jack:Competition for places is always great and hopefully it'll help him find his scoring boots again.
tedbro:That's true, no distractions now!
Justice:I think we can be pleased with some of the results. The draws throughout just didn't benefit us.
Griffo:Oh well we live and we learn!