Victor Goncharenko was halfway through a candid assessment of his team’s hammering by Arsenal when, unprompted, he produced one of the more statesmanlike interventions in contemporary Anglo-Russian relations. “We still welcome you in Russia for the World Cup,” the CSKA Moscow manager said. “We can assure you there will be great stadiums. Ask us questions and please come to Russia.”
The answers will hopefully carry more substance than the sum of his team’s endeavours in north London. It was one of those curious nights where, although only a curmudgeon would play down the twisting gossamer touch of Aaron Ramsey or the information-packed radar of Mesut Özil, the opposition’s generosity carries a caveat. At times Arsenal, given more space to enjoy themselves than at any stage in a gear-grinding season, appeared to be slaloming around traffic cones; they offered a generous amount of space themselves and the end product was an affair that, while eminently watchable throughout, lacked much of the edge or tension associated with a last-eight tie.
A more testing visit to Russia looked probable when Aleksandr Golovin, the 21-year-old shining light of a national team who will struggle to escape from a pall of negativity this summer, swept a 22-yard free‑kick past Petr Cech. It was its own show of potency, a thrilling act of aggression on Islington soil, but Golovin’s night was spoiled by what went on behind him.
CSKA had, by Goncharenko’s own admission, set up to play an open game and at times Arsenal supporters must have wondered if they were watching a mirror image of their own side at its most naive. The lack of a purely defensive presence in midfield allowed Arsenal, led by the near-unplayable Özil, to pile forward at will and they were faced by a rusting hulk of a back three whose immobility bore stark contrast to the invention and movement with which CSKA threatened at least one further away goal.
Sergey Ignashevich, Vasily Berezutsky and Alexey Berezutsky have enjoyed garlanded careers but these days rack up a combined age of 108; that seemed a conservative figure at times when Arsenal, forcing the unscreened veterans to scuttle backwards rather than risk diving in and be outfoxed by a sharper feet, tore into them in the first half and Goncharenko could not say there had been no warning. In September, Manchester United had run two thirds of the trio ragged in a 4-1 away win; if these venerable ghosts of Russian football past are hauled out again next week, a repeat cannot quite be ruled out.
Russian football is more concerned with tackling its present-day demons. There were no non-football storylines to trouble onlookers at the Emirates Stadium, a 200-strong, partly bare-chested away support from CSKA wholly minded to enjoy their night despite its chastening outcome on the pitch. Applause for Ramsey, in the Juventus fashion, when he produced his moment of magic would have been asking too much but this was an evening played out in genial spirits. Goncharenko’s invitation underlined that but he will surely hope for a suspension of charitable sentiments a week from now.
