RANGERS’ RIVALS IN DISARRAY A HEAD OF EUROPA CLASH
MELTDOWN IN MOSCOW
SPARTAK MOSCOW have gone into meltdown ahead of their Europa League clash with Rangers on Thursday.
The Russian big guns fired Italian manager Massimo Carrera yesterday morning and announced that fitness coach Raul Riancho will step into the hotseat in a caretaker capacity for the clash at
Ibrox. Unconfirmed reports from Moscow claimed the club have Brendan Rodgers on their shortlist of replacements along with former Monaco boss Leonardo Jardim.
Sources close to Spartak and Celtic were quick to pour cold water on those links but the drama has the Russians in a state of flux as they prepare to board a flight to Glasgow.
They’re languishing in seventh in the domestic league after a 3-2 defeat at home to Arsenal Tula at the weekend – a result that led to Carrera’s dismissal after almost two and a half years.
In his debut season Carrera, right-hand man to Antonio Conte at Juventus, led Spartak to a first Russian title in 16 years.
But they could only manage a third-place finish last season and crashed out the Champions League qualifiers in the summer.
A club statement said: “Last season’s results were considered unsatisfactory – not a single target was achieved. Results and play this season have shown there’s no improvement.”
It’s also understood Carrera was at war with his squad with players Denis Glushakov and Andrei Yeshchenko dropped to the reserves after being accused of “liking” abusive posts about the manager.
The turmoil is similar to the situation surrounding Gers’ last Europa League tie when Rapid Vienna arrived at Ibrox days after axing Goran Djuricin.
Replacement Dietmar Kuhbauer saw his team crash to a 3-1 defeat as Gers took top spot in Group G.