CSKA Moscow hosts Espanyol in the Russian capital

After a disastrious start of their Europa League campaign two weeks ago, now CSKA Moscow hosts Espanyol in the Russian capital in a match from Group H. Let’s take a look during our usual Europa League predictions for the week.

How we said, the way CSKA Moscow kicked off their season in the tournament was a pure disaster. They visited the Bulgarian champion Ludogorets as favourites, but at the end suffered a humilating 1-5 defeat in the city of Razgrad. The centre back Igor Diveev opened the score for CSKA in the beginning of the game, but this was the beginning of a nightmare for the Russians. After the halftime break Ludogorets shockingly scored five times, putting CSKA to sleep. It was a big night for the Romanian striker Claudiu Keseru, who scored a hattrick in Igor Akinfeev’s net.

Probably it won’t be far from the truth that CSKA underrestimated the Bulgarian side. After all, the Russians are a much bigger club. But they got a lesson that in football the only thing that matters is what happens on the pitch. Against Espanyol Viktor Goncharenko’s boys will try to redeem themselves in front of the fans.

Espanyol surprisingly didn’t start their Europa League participation with a win. The La Liga side hosted the Hungarian Ferencvaros in Barcelona, but only won a point after a 1-1 draw. Espanyol’s Javi Lopez scored himself an own goal after just 10 minutes of playing, but Matias Vargas equalised soon after the start of the second half.

You can be sure that Espanyol had different plans for the way they had to start in this group. Now they will have a very difficult test in Moscow, so it’s going to be curious to see how they are going to perform against CSKA.

These are our Europa League predictions for the game between CSKA Moscow and Espanyol in the capital of Russia. Can CSKA bounce back after the disaster in Bulgaria? Or Espanyol will claim a first win in this group?