Lovren's debut and Smolov's return: what is interesting about the match for the Russian Super Cup "Zenith" - "Lokomotiv"

Rumors of coronavirus at Zenit and Lokomotiv's dissatisfaction with the calendar

The match for the Russian Super Cup this year will be a serious test of strength for Lokomotiv and Zenit. After all, the teams will have to play six games in the national championship by the end of the month, and the meeting at the VEB Arena will become an additional burden for them. 

And the fans of St. Petersburg did have to be seriously nervous, because the day before the fight, journalist Sergei Egorov, on his Telegram channel, announced that seven team players had passed "suspicious" tests for coronavirus at once. In this regard, an incomplete train was supposedly to go to Moscow. The club denied this information and noted that only one football player passed such a test. 

Zenit fully complies with the sanitary regulations and informs Rospotrebnadzor and RPL about everything. One questionable test was identified last week. After the test, this person passed three more repeated ones, which turned out to be negative, but he was still quarantined, "the Championship quotes Anton Makarenko, head of the Zenit press service.

A little later, a photo from the plane of Yuri Zhirkov appeared on the official Twitter account of St. Petersburgers, who was allegedly one of those who passed the suspicious test.

There were no such problems at Lokomotiv. But the club was unhappy with the need to hold a meeting for the Super Cup on the eve of a tense segment in the RPL and were even going to put up a second squad for the game. At the same time, the champion is in a much more difficult situation, because in August, Sergey Semak's wards will have to play four games away, while the silver medalist outside Moscow will have to travel only twice.

Lunev's absence and the expectation of Lystsov's debut

However, the emotional statement of the chairman of the board of directors of the capital club Anatoly Meshcheryakov at the end of July was the only one on this topic. Thus, Lokomotiv will most likely enter the field with the main lineup, just like Zenit.

The head coaches of the opponents will be missing only one player. The main goalkeeper Andrey Lunev will not help the blue-white-blue, and Boris Rotenberg will not help the red-green.  

But Zenit, unlike Lokomotiv, faced much more serious staffing problems. In the summer, four players left the club at once (Branislav Ivanovich, Alexander Kokorin, Oleg Shatov and Igor Smolnikov). Daler Kuzyaev still has not signed a new contract, who will definitely not play in Moscow.  

This means that Semak will have to make do with an extremely limited clip at the VEB Arena. And in the center of midfield, a young specialist can count on only four people: Vilmar Barrios, Magomed Ozdoev, Alexander Erokhin and Leon Musaev. 

Deyan Lovren will almost certainly have to take to the field in the match with Lokomotiv, who arrived in St. Petersburg only on Sunday. There may not be an alternative to the Croat in the center of defense, since Emanuel Mammana, according to teammate and compatriot Sebastian Driussi, will go to Sochi on loan, and Jordan Osorio has not signed a full agreement with the club. 

Probably, the 31-year-old Champions League winner will have to play with another age defender Yaroslav Rakitskiy on the move. Lovren himself admitted that a couple of good workouts would be enough for him to play with the railroad workers. 

Lokomotiv's losses are much less critical. João Mario's lease has expired. Experienced forward Jefferson Farfan also left the team. But Fyodor Smolov returned from Celta. Marko Nikolic has already stated that it was his decision to return the striker, and admitted that he was happy with the arrival of the 30-year-old football player.

It is possible that the Russian on Friday will pair up in attack with Eder who has extended his contract with the club and will again cross on the field with Artyom Dzyuba, the rivalry with whom has acquired a special character after the home world championship. So far, in this fight, the advantage is on the side of Fedor, whose teams have won seven victories over Dziuba's teams with five defeats and four draws.     

The team was also joined by an 18-year-old Uzbek midfielder Jasurbek Jaloliddinov and a 25-year-old central defender Vitaly Lystsov. And if the appearance of a legionnaire in the starting lineup is practically unrealistic, then a pupil of railway workers who left the Krylya Sovetov RPL, who had left the RPL, may well form a duet in the center of defense with Vedran Chorluka.  

The fourth match of the teams for the Super Cup and the unsuccessful series of "Zenith"

It is curious that exactly a year ago Zenit and Lokomotiv also met in the Super Cup match in Moscow, only at the Dynamo stadium. The railroad workers managed to win a strong-willed victory (3: 2) and win the last trophy under the leadership of Yuri Semin.  

As part of the Petersburgers, Serdar Azmun scored a double, and Alexey Miranchuk scored twice in the red-greens. The fact that the midfielder has still not left the team despite rumors of interest in him in Italy will certainly increase Loko's chances of success. Alexey gained excellent shape in the summer and scored seven goals in eight RPL matches. Miranchuk has traditionally played successfully with Zenit. In 13 games, he chalked up four goals and one assist.   

At the same time, the rivals will challenge the country's Super Cup for the fourth time. In 2008 and 2015, Zenit turned out to be stronger, which ranks second in the number of victories in this tournament (4) after CSKA (7). Lokomotiv won three times and was defeated in decisive matches on four occasions.  

This time the statistics of head-to-head meetings with Zenit are on the side of the railroad workers. The last victory over the red-greens from St. Petersburg was won in September 2018. Then the super-productive match in St. Petersburg ended with a score of 5: 3 in favor of the hosts.

Since then, Semak's team has suffered two defeats and twice disagreed with the opponent in the world. In particular, the champion with a minimum score lost to Loko in Cherkizov in September last year. And in the match of the second round of the RPL in the city on the Neva, the teams parted in peace - 0: 0. 

However, the fans of railroad workers had a lot of questions about the appointment of Mikhail Vilkov to the game for the Super Cup. So, last season, the referees remained dissatisfied with the work of CSKA after the meeting in St. Petersburg. Then the referee from Nizhny Novgorod showed an extremely controversial second yellow card to Yake Biyol, but at the same time did not send Azmun off for a gross foul on Ivan Oblyakov.  

And the president of "Spartak" Leonid Fedun, on the eve of the semifinal meeting of the Russian Cup with "Zenith", noted that if Vilkov was to serve her, "it will not even be possible to enter the field."  

One way or another, but Vilkov really served Zenit matches more often than other domestic teams. At the same time, in 35 meetings with his refereeing, St. Petersburgers suffered only two defeats.

However, one of them happened just for the match against Lokomotiv in Cherkizov in 2019. And then the work of the referee was unhappy in St. Petersburg. Vilkov in the end canceled Robert Mack's goal, and at the beginning of the meeting did not assign a penalty to the railroad gates for a possible foul on Ozdoev.