Dziuba hat-trick, three penalties and seven goals scored: how Zenit defeated Rostov in the RPL

Tired “Zenith” and Lunev on the bench

The last RPL tours are not complete without the meetings of the teams included in the group of leaders. Two weeks ago, “Rostov” defeated CSKA on the road, and after a pause for the matches of the national teams, it was forced to have another guest match with the domestic grand - “Zenith”.

However, the top clubs of the wards of Valery Karpin this season are definitely not scared. In addition to CSKA, the yellow and blue have already beaten Lokomotiv and parted ways with Spartak, but managed to yield to Tambov and Ufa. However, the Petersburgers did not intend to become the next victim, all the more so at home they were not inferior to Rostov for six years - since November 2013.

Former vice president of the club from the South of Russia, Alexander Shikunov, in anticipation of the meeting in an interview with RT, noted that the yellow-blue should have an advantage, since the Karpin team sent fewer players to the national teams. And to argue with this was difficult, because almost all the players in the starting lineup of Zenit managed to go to their national teams.

Despite this, Sergei Semak released on the field from the first minutes of all his leaders. And the place at the last frontier was again taken by Mikhail Kerzhakov, who ousted Andrey Lunev from the base back in Yekaterinburg.

But “Rostov” due to health problems did not count the main central defender Ragnar Sigurdsson. Moreover, the damage did not prevent the footballer from taking part in the last matches of the Icelandic national team. Instead, the company of Dmitry Chistyakov in the center of defense was again made up by the young Swede Dennis Hadzhikadunich.

Fast goal and inconspicuous Shomurodov

It was Khadzhikadunich who laid the foundation for the beating of Rostov. At the very beginning of the match, he pushed in the back in his penalty area Dziuba, who was preparing to close the canopy from the flank, and chief referee Sergey Karasev immediately pointed to the point. It seemed that Artyom was offside, but the VAR system that worked on the game probably gave the referee a hint.

Dziuba confidently realized a penalty and celebrated it with a corporate gesture. And five minutes later Artyom scored a double. And the “Zenith” again helped the standard position. Sebastian Driussi with a free kick threw the ball to the right flank of Vyacheslav Karavaev, who transferred the touch to Dziuba, who easily outplayed Chistyakov in the air.

After this double blow performed by the captain of the Russian national team, Rostov was virtually knocked out. The team did not succeed in practically anything, and Zenit looked stronger on the head. The guests didn’t even get branded quick counterattacks - Petersburgers calmly coped with them, and didn’t open too much. One of the top scorers of the current RPL season, Eldor Shomurodov, was invisible. In general, the yellow-blue were marked only by a pair of not the most dangerous long-range strikes. Kerzhakov, Jr. practically had no work.

“Zenith” shortly before the break brought the score to a major one, and this time again it could not do without the help of Dziuba. After filing in the penalty area, Artyom won martial arts once again and threw the ball at Serdar Azmun, who threw a projectile into the net of Yegor Baburin from a fairly sharp angle. The pupil of St. Petersburg did not have the best match.

The Expendable Dziuba and the goals in the end

After such a first half, it seemed that Zenit would not give all the best in the second half, especially on Wednesday the team was waiting for the most important away match with Leipzig in the Champions League. However, Dziuba was not going to stop there. No sooner had the game resumed, as the striker scored a hat-trick after an excellent pass from Azmun. True, the judge, taking a pause, fixed the offside position.

“Rostov” at the start of the second half of the meeting intensified and went ahead with great strength, realizing that there is nothing to lose. However, all points on the “i” were finally set by Vyacheslav Karavaev with the help of the same Dziuba. The hosts fled to a quick attack, and Artem found a connecting rookie of the team on the far post with a soft pass. So Karavaev scored a debut goal in St. Petersburg, and Dziuba scored the fourth point for performance.

But this striker was not enough. He longed to get his first hat-trick in the RPL in six years. And Semak understood this perfectly. He changed Oleg Shatov, Magomed Ozdoev and Dryussi one after another, but left Artyom on the field.

And Dziuba did not fail. At the end of the match, he again forced the opponent to violate the rules in someone else's penalty area. The striker imposed a fight on Chistyakov, and Dmitry threw the forward onto the lawn. It seemed that the ball after the cross from the flank in this situation went into the hands of Baburin, but Karasev awarded a penalty.

The goalkeeper took the first hit of Dziuba from the point, but the referee took the side of the Zenit player and asked him to try again, since Baburin left the gate ahead of time, which was clearly visible in the repeat. Egor was close to taking Artyom's second blow, but the ball still slipped into the net.

Thus, Dziuba became the author of the first RPL hat-trick in almost two years. He also designed the third hat-trick in his career and the second in the national championship. It is symbolic that for the first time he scored three goals for the game in the national championship just as part of Rostov in 2013. In addition, the striker for the second time in his career scored five points for performance at the club level.

But the meeting did not end there. Karasev also decided to draw a peculiar hat-trick for the designated penalty and pointed to the point already in the Zenit penalty box after Branislav Ivanovich hooked Evgeny Chernov with his hand. The eleven-meter confidently implemented Roman Eremenko.

However, the last word in the match was left to St. Petersburg. In time added by the judge, Wilmar Barrios, having received a pass from Azmuna, beat the defender and sent a shell to the far corner. Thus, Zenit unexpectedly defeated a direct competitor in anticipation of the departure to Leipzig. “Rostov” had a blatantly failed game.