Vlasic sparkles again in CSKA draw with Swarovski Tirol

Nikola Vlasic scored his third goal in CSKA Moscow’s last two friendly matches against Swarovski Tirol on Saturday. The Austrian Bundesliga side scored either side of half time before Jaka Bijol rescued a 2-2 draw for the Red-Blues.

Four minutes before half time trialist David Karaev was chopped down just inside the box. Vlasic drilled the spot kick high down the middle to give CSKA the lead. A couple of minutes later Karaev threaded an incisive ball through to Vlasic after a strong run, but the Croatian couldn’t control it.

Just before half time Swarovski Tirol took a rather agricultural route. A huge kick out from keeper Ferdinand Oswald touched the ground once before finding the net, after two consecutive flick-on headers found Zlatko Dedic to volley home.

On 58 minutes, Felix Adjei swung a beautiful deep cross towards 37-year-old Stefan Maierhofer to chest down and slide under Ilya Pomazun. With just over 10 minutes left Ivan Oblyakov’s inswinging cross found a melee of CSKA players, Jaka Bijol getting the telling touch.

On Saturday, CSKA also confirmed the signing of 17-year-old Krylia Sovetov Samara defender Nikita Kotin. The Russia under-18 international has signed a 3.5-year contract.

CSKA will face Nordsjaelland on Wednesday 5 February next.

CSKA Moscow 2-2 Swarovski Tirol
1 February, Campoamor, Spain
Goals: Vlasic 41’ (p), Bijol 79’; Dedic 44’, Maierhofer 56’

First half: Akinfeev, Fernandes, Karpov, Diveev, Nababkin, Shchennikov, Akhmetov, Bistrovic, Vlasic, Sigurdsson, Karaev
Second half: Pomazun, Eleev, Gogoua, Magnusson, Maradishvili, Kuchaev, Oblyakov, Bijol, Dzagoev, Chalov, Shkurin