Group Stage Fan Preview: Spartak Moscow

Spartak Moscow are back in the Champions League for the first time in 5 years, as they take on Maribor, Liverpool and Sevilla in Group E. Can they pull off the upset of making it into the knockout round?

Spartak automatically qualified for the group stage after winning their first title in 16 years, last season. They had many stars-Fernando, Denis Glushakov, Quincy Promes, but nobody was a bigger star than Massimo Carrera, the coach. He upset all odds, and led this scrappy side to the title.

It was a magical season, but this season has been anything but magic. After last season, we should've bolstered our squad, but instead, we ended up signing Mario Pasalic on loan and buying Pedro Rocha, two interesting youngsters, but nothing to really instill the feeling that we'll repeat the title.

Carrera is the key here. He used to be Antonio Conte's assistant coach, and he was signed to be Spartak's assistant coach, but after head coach Dmitry Alenichev was sacked, Carrera became the head coach.