CSKA – Nizhnyi Novgorod

Pari NN is not doomed to defeat

On Friday, October 31, CSKA and Pari NN will kick off the 14th round of the Russian championship. The army team is facing their penultimate match in the first round as the third favourite of the RPL – the success of the new coach Fabio Celestini is evident. Meanwhile, Alexey Shpilevsky is struggling with his team sitting in 16th place in the table. CSKA has bounced back after a heavy defeat against Lokomotiv. The team has drawn the right conclusions and hasn’t fallen into crisis. First, the army men lifted their spirits with an emotional victory over Akron, and then secured a win in the league against Krylya Sovetov. The match with the Samara team confirmed the tremendous problems in Moscow, particularly with the strikers. Currently, the top scorers are midfielders: Daniil Krugovoy, Kirill Glebov, and Ivan Oblyakov, while all three forwards have only scored two goals. This means that CSKA often plays under pressure and with significant advantage, but lacks the skill to convert chances into goals. At the same time, there is a certain reliability in defence. The young Matvey Lukin has now broken into the starting lineup, displacing the foreign player Joao Victor. This gives Celestini a large selection of players for almost every position in the squad. Pari NN unjustly occupies the last place based on the last two games. The team simply lacks luck. Pari NN created more goal-scoring chances than Akron and Baltika, but managed to fail to score a single goal. According to xG, they should have scored more than two – they could have reasonably expected to gain six points, but ultimately ended up with just one – a disappointing zero against Baltika. The Uruguayan forward Juan Boselli is still very underrated. The striker literally creates scoring situations on his own, even against top clubs. In the match against Baltika, he had another excellent game – Boselli might eventually break through. Pari NN has added players to their rotation. The attacking player Yuri Koledin has appeared on the flanks of defence – a master of dangerous crosses and cutbacks. The foreign player Alex Sarfo now plays in the centre of the field. He performed well against Baltika. Pari NN has reasons for optimism – they are by no means a doomed outsider. Bookmakers naturally identify CSKA as the clear favourite, but this is a match where surprises are possible. The army team has problems in attack, while Pari NN is dangerous on quick counter-attacks. Besides Boselli, goal-scoring chances can also be created by Olakunle Olusegun and Daniil Lesovoy. There are enough technical players in the rotation as well. CSKA could easily underestimate such an opponent. The army team has previously experienced tough home matches against clubs from the bottom half of the table. It is reasonable to assume that CSKA will not win by a large margin – distance should bring Pari NN back for their past failures.