No Russian Club Qualified For Spring Part Of UEFA Competitions For 1st Time In 18 Years

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2019) No Russian football club qualified for the spring part of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, which is the worst performance in 18 years.

Russia's FC Krasnodar remained the last Russian team that had chances to qualify for the play-off of the Europa League on Thursday but it was defeated by Spain's Getafe with the score 3-0. The goals were scored by defender Leandro Cabrera in the 76th minute, forward Jorge Molina in the 78th minute and midfielder Robert Kenedy in the 86th minute.

Krasnodar got nine out of 18 points in Group C and came third, while Switzerland's Basel and Getafe have qualified for the play-off.

Russia's CSKA Moscow won its last match in the 2019-2020 Europa League, beating Spain's Espanyol with the score 1-0. The only goal was scored by midfielder Nikola Vlasic in the 84th minute of the match.

The victory, however, did not help CSKA to qualify for the next stage of the tournament as the Russian club got only five points and became the worst team in Group H. Espanyol and Bulgaria's Ludogorets will continue the struggle in spring.

Zenit St. Petersburg and Lokomotiv Moscow ended up in the last places of their groups in the Champions League, while Spartak Moscow and Arsenal Tula failed to qualify for the group stage of the Europa League.

The poor performance of Russian teams in 2019-2020 UEFA competitions allowed Portugal to beat Russia in the UEFA club coefficient rankings, which means that in the 2021-2022 season, only two Russians teams will have an opportunity to perform in the Champions League and three teams in the Europa League.