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The match of Spartak Club members born in the year of 1996 versus Barcelona ended in the 0:0 tie; the game was held on the third match day of Spartak Cup international junior tournament.    

Spartak — Barcelona — 0:0

Spartak: Scherbakov, Grechkin, Likhachev, Babaev, Bakaev (Sadykhov, 59), Buranov (Konovalov, 45), Panteleev, Akhmaev, Yuriev

Barcelona: Onana, Alvares, Ferrer, Blanco Moreno, Garcia Rey, Palencia Urtado, Tarin Igon, Torras Crespo, Captum, Shendri, Buanacasa Alba, Enterna Galves

The match gathered more spectators on the grandstands than the last subs games. The sign board spoke for itself: "Spartak versus Barcelona", the best Russia’s Academy against the best world’s Academy. On VIP grandstands one could see our Club CEO Roman Askhabadze, Spartak’s legendary veterans Rinat Dasayev, Academy President Sergey Rodionov, subs coaches Vasili Kulkov and Andrey Pyatnitsky as well as Academy Director Valentine Klimko. People’s artist Dmitry Nazarov could not afford himself to miss such match; he came to Sokolniki to support young Spartak Club members together with his own son.       

And though the game resulted in goalless draw, it hasn’t disappointed fans’ expectations. The match was agile and engrossing. It had its own dramaturgy, its own nerve. Initially Spartak guys’ play was circumspect to some extent, focusing on back areas, and prior to the break Barcelona nearly used that chance. One time the Catalans forgave the Muscovites by shooting wide from a dreadful position, in another episode we were rescued by goalkeeper Scherbakov, who successfully substituted Mitryushin, who was transferred to the core team. And one time the guests were saved by the referee, who disrupted Spartak player effort to score from a one-vs-one chance due to colorable deviation from the regulations.

But after the break Vladimir Dzhubanov’s mentees improved their performance markedly. The red and whites perfectly managed to put pressure on the other part of the field, and sometimes they seemed to be much more like Barcelona than the Catalans themselves. One high-class save was performed by Scherbakov, whereas near the end of the game the guests were lucky – our midfielder Panteelev made extremely dangerous shots twice, and twice the ball flew near the post accompanied by fans’ sighs. The result is the combative draw, and the fans expressed their acknowledgment to our team with well-merited applause.