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Old 02-06-2015, 10:09 PM   #636
NoSkillz
College Benchwarmer
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
Wed. October 22, 2025

UEFA Champions League - Group D
Dover (1-0-1, 3 points, 3rd) vs. Spartak Moscow (1-1-0, 4 points, 1st)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, England

Betting Odds: Dover: 4-5 (Favourites) Draw: 2-1 Spartak Moscow: 3-1
Past Meetings: 0W 0D 0L

This is a monster matchup for us as we face our likely competition for the second place spot in this group. Spartak Moscow have a huge 6-0 win over Maribor and held Real Madrid to a scoreless draw to take the early lead in the group with a +6 goal differential. Spartak are currently in second place in the Russian Premier League, only two points behind CSKA Moscow after winning the league last year. In fact, they are 16-time Russian champions. They have a stud defender in English international Eddie Hurrell, a player I’ve long coveted but been unable to pry away. He’s injured for today’s match, however. Their leading scorers are strikers Alexandr Streitsov (13 goals) and Caca (12 goals).

Claudio Contreras is serving the last of a four game European suspension but we’ll go with all of our other regular starters today in this pivotal game. Mwemere Mutesa will play at DC in place of Contreras. We do have a match coming up in three days against Manchester United but all of our concentration should be on this match.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - Renato Gaucho, M. Mutesa, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - M. Pedersen, B. Raab, Jose, G. Bolis
S - P. Moses, Chiquinho
Bench - Rafinha, R. Lopez, A. Torres, E. Harvey, N. Cairney, Z. Bardi, A. Broomes

Spartak are in a flat 4-4-2 with Streitsov and Caca up front and Danilo is in goal. Lets play well for our supporters today!

15’ - We aren’t playing well at all to start and watch as Mads Pedersen goes down with an injury. Great. He can’t continue so we have to bring in Rafinha for him. DOVER INJURY: Mads Pedersen

HALFTIME - Boy, this isn’t good. We’re super lethargic and generating NOTHING. No shots on goal, as we hold 54% of the ball but are being outshot 7-6 (4-0 on target for Spartak). NOT GOOD. I express anger in the room at half - I want to see some life from these guys!

55’ - Mwemere Mutesa gets called for a yellow and that’s FIVE yellow cards in the game for us. We’re undisciplined and playing poorly to boot.

74’ - Boy, we have two players that are THIS CLOSE to getting red cards but the referee lets them get away with fouls. GEEZ. We pull out Jose and bring in Neil Cairney.

80’ - Paul Moses comes out and in comes Andy Broomes.

85’ - We need to WIN THIS GAME. I move to an overload mentality.

Not good at all. Very frustrating game.

Dover 0 - 0 Spartak Moscow
Goals -
Assists -
Man of the Match - Danilo (Spartak Moscow GK - 9.1)
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.2), Mwemere Mutesa (7.3), Renato Gaucho (7.7)
Attendance - 23,000 (Sell-Out)

We pushed harder in the second half but still can’t break down their organized defence and the result is a scoreless draw. We are in big trouble now and will need a positive result in the second matchup in Russia OR a win against Madrid. We held 54% of possession and outshot them 18-8 (4-4 on target). Their keeper wins man of the match honours.

-- Madrid destroys Maribor, as expected, 5-0 and take the lead in the group.

-- We get £348,000 for the draw.

-- Mads Pedersen suffers a pulled hamstring and will miss 2-3 weeks. Thankfully, Arsene Bamba is back but he’s completely unfit so we’ll likely have to rely quite a bit on Rafinha. DOVER INJURY: Mads Pedersen - Pulled Hamstring (2-3 weeks)



Next Up

-- We move onto another big game, as we travel to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United in Premier League action.

Last edited by NoSkillz : 02-06-2015 at 10:10 PM.
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