Ufa enjoyed second very good season in a row and this time they seem destined to also be selected to play in Europe for the first time in their history. True to what has worked for them in previous seasons Semak’s men were once again very compact defensively and used the opening 10 minutes of each half and the final 10 minutes of every match to inject more pace into their forward actions and look for narrow wins.
The start to the season was difficult despite the very small transfer activity over the summer, Ufa won just twice in the opening ten rounds and also suffered round 1 elimination in the Russian Cup, which was mainly because striker Fatai had wretched time in attack, while the main creative force behind him Sly had to miss several games injured or sick.
However, Ufa established in the top eight before the winter break as they ended 2017 on a run of five consecutive home wins, during which a single goal was conceded, with Sly and Paurevic having the most impact during this run with their 4 goals and 4 assists between them.
Paurevic’s strong contributions in attack saw him moved in a more advanced role after the winter break and this paid immediate dividends as the Croat scored in all of the opening four games of 2018 to bring his team seven quick points and pretty much confirm the top eight finish as early as round 24.
With teams above them making errors Ufa even had a chance to challenge the top five come April, this despite the fact that none of the strikers was scoring regularly and most of the crucial attacking contributions were made by wingers Stotskiy and Sly, the pushy inner midfielder Paurevic and the two outstanding wing-backs Jokic and Zhivoglyadov.
However, only draws against CSKA and Lokomotiv in rounds 26 and 27 ended that dream and Ufa had to settle for sixth place. However, as the cup winners Tosno were refused license for Europe Ufa are expected to take their place in Europa League next season.
