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Hello, this is Gia Saralidze for VK, and we are talking about the most significant events in the football world.
There were many such events last week. The round of the Russian championship was quite interesting.
The international football is also quite surprising now.
And, of course, the European cups and the games of the Champions League took place.
However, we have not had a great success there. We have seen again that, regarding the international football world, our football clubs are mostly unsuccessful in the Champions League, despite incidental victories which do not indicate the level of our development.
The game between FC Bayern Munchen and CSKA showed that the level of our best clubs falls behind the order and the level of play of the top clubs of Europe, let alone the atmosphere on the pitch.
The game resulted in a 3-0 loss for CSKA.
Generally, they could have conceded even more goals.
We could say that the CSKA players have not completely recovered yet, and the derby match against Spartak FC showed that CSKA is now facing hard times after its quite good start at the championship.
As for these important matches against its strongest rival, the club failed, either because of its lower level or because of different problems with players - resignations, injuries, the absence of Vagner Love, Slutsky's mistakes etc.
That is just the point: CSKA Moscow is playing not that well now, and those who say that this case is not representative can look at the play of Zenit FC, which lost to Atletico Madrid.
This is one of the richest European clubs. The level that they show playing in the Russian championship and in the games of the Champions League is not the level of top football clubs.
I hope that something might change, but so far the fact remains.
Our clubs do not meet the standards of the Champions League and its top clubs.
Maybe something could change. Finally, this is only the beginning.
But if we draw conclusions from the current situation, I think that many people will agree that the level of Real Madrid FC, Bayern Munchen FC and Barcelona is not our level yet.
As for the most burning international news, of course this is the Manchester derby and Manchester United's loss to Manchester City.
This derby is quite an important event.
All the city of Manchester is divided into two parts: the first one is the fans of Manchester City, they call themselves "citizens" and think Manchester City is the only club that can represent Manchester.
The other part is the fans of Manchester United, and they do not recognize Manchester City at all.
It is widely thought that the fans of Manchester United live in the suburbs of the city, though it is not completely so.
The fact remains that this is a prominent confrontation which plays its role during the championships, but Manchester City raised lots of questions by this victory.
What will happen to the club led by Moyes, who has just started to work as the coach after the era of Alex Ferguson?
It is clear that there are certain problems in the club and that it faces very serious tasks.
Manchester United has some problems concerning aging players, especially in defence.
They often miss good chances on the pitch, though they are great professionals.
There are also problems with the atmosphere in the club.
First of all, the fact that Alex Ferguson left the club cannot remain unnoticed.
There are problems with several players who would like to leave the club or have complex relations with the club.
It is clear that Manchester United is currently not the top team of English football. Every round brings with it a surprising outcome, and there is no obvious leader, because even an outsider can unexpectedly win a victory.
Time will tell who is ready to be the champion. I think there are several such clubs, including Arsenal FC, Liverpool FC, Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United.
There might be several champions - there have been some such precedents in the history of the English football.
Those who will watch the championship will certainly enjoy this.
Despite some failures of these teams in the world arena, including the Champions League, English football, to my mind, remains very interesting and spectacular.
In the next part of our program we will talk about the 9th round of the Russian Premier League and two Moscow derby matches within it - I mean the Dynamo - Lokomotiv and Spartak - CSKA games.