The meeting ended with a victory for the hosts with a score of 3:1. Wendel opened the scoring in the 53rd minute. In the 80th minute, the Brazilian midfielder doubled the St. Petersburg club’s lead. In the 90th + 6th minute, Andrei Mostovoy brought the score to a devastating score. But two minutes later, Roman Yezhov managed to recover a goal.
From the first minutes of the match it became clear that the guests were not going to give the match to Zenit so easily. The Samara team allowed Zenit to gain possession and settle into a low defense. But the hosts were in no hurry to attack, remembering the sad experience of Spartak in the match against Igor Osinkin’s team.
Semak’s team created the first chance in their own goal. After a powerful clearance from the goal, the ball ended up with Saltykov. The midfielder ran away from Erakovic, beat Rodrigao, shot, but missed the goal. At the end of the half, Zenit still managed to create a chance. Sergeev, who received a pass from Claudinho, headed towards the goal, but could not beat Ovsyannikov.
The start of the second half remained without substitutions, but this did not prevent Zenit from becoming more aggressive in attack. And 8 minutes into the half, the hosts opened the score. Sergeev made a pass to Wendel and the Brazilian didn’t miss it.
The guests could not withstand the pressure from St. Petersburg, and as a result, it was not possible to create a dangerous moment. The Semak players, on the contrary, did not plan to calm down. In the 65th minute, Zenit scored the second, but after watching the replay, the referee canceled the goal due to a handball, which gave the goal to Mantuana.
Towards the end of the match, Semak decided to freshen up the game and released Karavaev and Andrei Mostovoy. The solution worked. A few minutes later, Douglas dos Santos crosses from the flank towards the penalty area, where Wendel carefully sends the ball into the far corner and scores a brace.
After the second conceded, the Wings completely stopped doing anything on offense. And Zenit managed to score the third. In the 6th minute added, Mostovoy, who entered the game, scored. Another cross from the flank, but this time by Erokhin, and Mostovoy sent the ball into the goal. Two minutes later, Krylia Sovetov escaped a crushing defeat. Yezhov received a pass from Bale, placed the ball in his right hand and shot into the nearest corner. Adamov failed to keep the goal intact.
“The match can be considered an asset. In the first half it was a difficult match. In the second half we became faster. The only thing was that we could not double the lead for a long time to calm the game down. We We played well in defense, after the break we hardly let any chances create in front of our goal,” Semak said after winning the match.
“We had a good first half, but a quick goal at the start of the second revealed us. And we didn’t find the strength to force the fight. Zenit dominated. We understood that they would be overmotivated. And that’s what happened. “, commented on the defeat Igor Osinkin.
After winning, Zenit moved up to second place, reducing the gap with Krasnodar to five points. After a crushing victory against Spartak, Osinkin’s team suffered its second defeat. “Wings” fell to third place in the rankings. The fight for gold continues.
Yahya Hasanov, Athletistic
Source: Sport
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
