Goal after a draw, surprise from Semak and removal of Guliyev: how Zenit beat Rostov in the 15th round of the RPL

Dziuba in the start and a bad series for the "Zenith"

Confrontation "Zenith" and "Rostov" was not by chance considered the main match of the 15th round. In the old days, the battle of these teams would not have caused such interest, but this season, “Rostov” again fights for medals. “Zenit” from the first rounds captured the first place and began to increase the lead over rivals.

However, the team started having problems in the fall. The wards of Sergei Semak were defeated by Anji, Dynamo and CSKA and with great difficulty won several victories over the teams inferior to the class. The Russian team leaders came to a natural decline after the World Cup. In the last round of St. Petersburg with a very vague game lost to the army team.

Thus, Rostov has an excellent opportunity to take points from a competitor. Wards of Valery Karpin love and are able to resist teams that want to play the first number, because the ex-mentor of “Spartacus”, as before, and Kurban Berdyev, relies on defense and quick counterattacks. As a result, fewer Rostovites, on the basis of 14 rounds of the RPL, missed only CSKA (seven goals against eight).

Also, in the event of a Zenit misfire, the champion race actually began anew, since the second-round Krasnodar match of the 15th round with Arsenal led to a confident crushing victory and reduced the gap from Petrograd to two points.

Another factor that testified in favor of Rostov is the meeting statistics. In the last four games against Zenit, the team has not suffered a single defeat, and three of them ended in a goalless draw.

And in a recent game of the 1/8 finals of the Cup of Russia, Karpin's players beat the venerable opponent in the home stadium at all - 3: 1. Less than a month, as Zenit got the opportunity to take revenge on his opponent.

However, before the start of the match there were doubts that Artem Dziuba could take part in it, who played on loan for the whole season in Rostov-on-Don. Due to a knee injury, Artyom could not finish the game with CSKA, but then came to the location of the Russian team and even played 90 minutes with the Swedes. Fortunately, the forward avoided a relapse and on Sunday was in the starting lineup.

But with the line of defense Semak decided to experiment. In the face of Emanuel's injury, the Mamanes and Luis Nets' disqualification, the Zenit coaching staff relied on a scheme with three central defenders, and the company, Branislav Ivanovich and Mikha Mevle, was composed by the most experienced Alexander Anyukov. The captain for the first time got into the starting line-up of the team for the match of the current season RPL. On the flanks of the same worked Robert Mack and Daler Kuzyaev.

But Claudio Marchisio, who made a productive mistake in the previous game, remained in the reserve.

In turn, Karpin did without injuries and disqualifications and released the strongest team on the field. Could not help the team only injured Timofey Kalachev.

Beat Valuev and a quick goal of "Zenith"

The hosts started the game itself powerfully. Wards Semak seemed to gain strength from the ex-world boxing champion Nikolai Valuev, who performed the first blow on the ball. “Zenit” from the first minute seized the initiative and already on the 12th opened the scoring.

“Rostov” for the fourth time in the season managed to miss after the draw out. The guests lost two horseback fighting, and Sebastian Driussi competently responded to the rebound in the penalty area and sent the ball into the near corner.

Opening an account, St. Petersburg people did not reduce the pressure. Losing a shell, the team immediately organized high pressure and forced the opponent to make mistakes. By the 20th minute, the advantage of “Zenith” in possession of the ball exceeded 70%. At Rostov, the company’s counter-attacks did not take place at all.

However, in the middle of the inning, the hosts took a break. The team stopped pressing the opponent on another side of the field and allowed the Karpin team to conduct a series of dangerous attacks. The most unpleasant moment was created by Ayaz Guliyev. After hitting the midfielder from outside the penalty shell hit the crossbar. In another episode, Alexander Zuev lacked several centimeters to close the carport from the corner.

Closer to the break, “Zenit” again regained the ball and almost scored a second time. After throwing Mevli, the defender lost Dziuba and allowed him to freely handle the long pass in the penalty area. Artyom went one on one with Sergey Pesyakov and beat with several meters almost certainly, but hit the goalkeeper in the hand.

Efforts "Rostov" and "point" from Erokhin

At the beginning of the second half, Zenit again gave the ball to the opponent and this time sat down very deep in defense. The home team almost never met an opponent before their own penalty. However, “Rostov” to play the first number was absolutely not comfortable, because the “trick” of the team are fast counterattacks, and not possession of the ball. In this match, the guests were denied the opportunity to show their strengths.

Despite this, the wards of Karpin tried to create something in front of the goal, but more often they were forced to hit from a distance, because in the penalty area, thanks to the presence of three central defenders of Zenit on the field, there was practically no free space. On the flanks, the St. Petersburg team with rivals also generally coped, except that the active Dmitry Skopintsev went away a couple of times from the age Anyukov, but the captain was insured by partners.

Finally everything became clear in the 63rd minute when Zenit scored the second goal. Once again, Driussi took direct part in the gol. This time, Sebastian from the right flank executed a chamber to the penalty line at Erokhin, and Alexander at the very first touch sent a projectile to the far corner.

If the fact that “Rostov” is able to score one goal was still believed, then the option with two goals from the guests seemed unreal. Trying to turn the course of the game, Karpin made substitutions, and the guests rather forward by inertia, but already understood that the match could not be saved.

In the end, lost their nerve at Guliyev. Ten minutes before the end, he hit Mevlya on the back of the legs and received a second yellow card. In general, the midfielder did not even lose anything, since he still had to miss the next game because of the first “mustard plaster”, which became his fourth in the season.

Thus, the reality in the case of the reporting match was very different from the expectations. Fans were waiting for an interesting double-edged confrontation, and got the game very different teams in the class.

Of course, the early ball greatly influenced the course of the meeting. After him, Zenit had all the cards in their hands. In this case, Semak managed to surprise Karpin with an unexpected move with three central defenders. The guests were not able to crack such a rich defense.

Pitertsy, having typed three points, have shown that it is too early to discount them. Many have assumed that the blue-white-blue will lose their leadership even before the winter break, but the team does not seem to intend to give the first line to anyone.