This evening, Anzhi face another Dutch side, AZ Alkmaar (they are 1.9420/21 to win; AZ 4.57/2). Given how impressively AZ have begun the season – with a draw at Ajax and then a 3-1 home win over Heracles, that may be a little long on them, and seems to assume the long trip will unsettled them. Laying Anzhi at 1.910/11 may be the call.
In recent years, Russian teams have thrived in the Europa League. All eyes are on are Anzhi Makhachkala this season but Jonathan Wilson reckons Guus Hiddink's big spenders might be thwarted this time...
One of the issues with the Europa League is that nobody is quite sure how seriously to take it. Once upon the time, the UEFA Cup was probably harder to win than the European Cup, featuring - as it did - all the best teams in Europe who hadn't won either the league or the cup. That created an odd situation in which the continent's premier competition was actually lesser than a supposedly secondary competition and so, while the present situation, in which the Champions League has primacy, is clearly more logical, it also seems to have provoked a nostalgia-driven revulsion for the new tournament.
The modern Europa League may not be of the same quality as the old UEFA Cup and, as Brian Phillips pointed out in The Blizzard Issue Four, it suffers from people not quite being able to define what it is: "The Second-Tier Distribution of Teams as Apportioned by Mathematical Coefficients Cup" just doesn't sound right. That is what it is, though, and you can't help but think everybody would be a lot happier if they could just accept it on those terms. It's not a competition for the likes of Real Madrid and Manchester United: rather it's for the big teams from slight smaller nations (in a football sense) - the giants of Portugal, Ukraine and Russia, for instance - and the smaller teams from the big nations - the likes of Atletico Madrid, Athletic Bilbao and Fulham.
In Russia and Ukraine, the successes of CSKA Moscow in 2005, Zenit St Petersburg in 2008 and Shakhtar Donetsk in 2009 were seen as major breakthroughs, evidence they could compete again against sides from the west. They helped dispel an inferiority complex that was always a slightly odd feature of Soviet football and that had intensified as state funding ran out following the break-up of the USSR in 1991.
The UEFA Cup was seen as giving a club validity and it's for that same reason that Anzhi Makhachkala will be taking the Europa League seriously. The club was founded in 1991 and, although it progressed from Dagestani local leagues to the Russian Premier League in only a decade, it is only since the billionaire Suleiman Kerimov took over in 2011 that it has become a major player. The signings of Roberto Carlos and Samuel Eto'o and the appointment of Guus Hiddink as coach have won headlines but the issue now is to convert investment into achievement on the pitch.
Anzhi finished a disappointing fifth last season. Domestically they have begun this season with a stutter, a draw at Rostov and a defeat at CSKA leaving them fifth after five games, despite becoming the first side to take points off the champions Zenit with a 1-1 home daw at the weekend. In Europe, they have been a little more impressive, beating Honved 5-0 on aggregate in the second qualifying round of the Europa league before securing their place in the play-off round with 2-0 wins in both legs against Vitesse Arnhem.
This evening, Anzhi face another Dutch side, AZ Alkmaar (they are 1.9420/21 to win; AZ 4.57/2). Given how impressively AZ have begun the season - with a draw at Ajax and then a 3-1 home win over Heracles, that may be a little long on them, and seems to assume the long trip will unsettled them. Laying Anzhi at 1.910/11 may be the call.
Jozy Altidore has been in superb form, scoring four of AZ's five goals in those two matches. He presents the sort of mobile, muscular threat not often found in Russian football and to which, strangely, Hiddink teams have often been susceptible (think of Alan Shearer's performance against Holland at Euro 96, or Emile Heskey's against Russia at home in qualifying for Euro 2008). Christopher Samba, of course, is as well-equipped as any centre-back to deal with a physical threat but if AZ can isolate Altidore against Joao Carlos, Anzhi may struggle. The other option is to sit Georgy Gaboulov and Jucilei very deep in midfield to pick up knockdowns, but that would seem to hand the initiative to AZ.
Anzhi are a coming side, and will take the Europa League seriously, but given how difficult their play-off round is 30 looks far too short. AZ at 46.045/1, in fact, probably offer better value.
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