The FC “Gazprom-UGRA” lost to the Portuguese Sporting in the semi-final of the UEFA Cup – 1:2.

Since the beginning of the match, the teams have preferred cautious football, counting on each other’s mistakes. The first dangerous moment was on account of Gazprom-UGRA, when Andrey Afanasiev tried but didn’t hit from a close distance the far upper corner. However, by the middle of the half, the attacks of Sporting have become more and more intrusive and dangerous, they also has help from their goalkeeper Marcao. His colleague Zviad Kupatadze demonstrated reliability, and on the 13th minute, after a sketch from the corner, Leo struck the crossbar. The “Almaty arena” didn’t see any scored goals for the starting 20 minutes.

The second half also began cautiously, but again the Portuguese looked a little more dangerous. At the 25th minute they came forward: Merlim gave the dummy on the flank to Chishkala and struck by a billiard blow past Kupatadze. “Gazprom-UGRA” activated in the attack, but in the 32nd minute, after a number of important saves their goalkeeper, was close to getting into the “minus two” – Diogo struck from close range in the bar. However, this could not be avoided. At the 34th minute Dieguinho in a fight with Caio managed to push the projectile into the net – 0:2, and after a timeout, UGRA played with an extra plaeyr.

For a long time, Kaka’s team did not manage to get any result. On the 38th minute Vladislav Shayakhmetov took responsibility, and struck under Marcao – 1:2. Already in the next attack, he gave a cross pass to the far post, but the player who met the cross struck the bar. The Russian assault was desperate, but “Sporting” survived it and reached the final.