Great Zenit shape and Leipzig series without victories
This season in the Champions League is especially important for Zenit, because the team made it to the group stage of the main European Cup for the first time in three years and is eager to not face dirt. So far, the return is very worthy. In the first match, Sergei Semak's wards on the road broke the world with Lyon - 1: 1, and in the second they confidently beat Benfica's home - 3: 1.
Thus, paired meetings with Leipzig will actually become decisive for blue-white-blue. In them, the current champion of Russia can both practically secure a ticket to the playoffs and seriously complicate his task. And to predict how these games will end is extremely difficult, since the composition of the group G turned out to be extremely even. The results of the same “Leipzig”, which first beat Benfica on the road - 2: 1, and then unexpectedly lost at home to Lion 1 in distress in League 1 - 0: 2, are indicative.
However, this match was one of four in a series of teams without victories in all tournaments. Leipzig, led by one of the most talented young coaches in Europe Julian Nagelsman, started the season perfectly and took the lead in the Bundesliga, but in the last three rounds he scored only two points and dropped to fifth, although he breathes in the back to the current leaders - the Mönchengladbach Borussia and Wolfsburg.
“Zenit”, on the contrary, is in excellent shape, which was shown by the last match of the Russian Premier League with “Rostov”, in which Petersburgers won with a tennis score - 6: 1. This result should give confidence to the team before an important away meeting in the Champions League, St. Petersburg head coach Sergei Semak believes.
“I think we have become a little stronger. They began to act more correctly when compared with last year's performance in the Europa League. Of course, we are growing as a team. There are top clubs that are difficult to play with, and with the rest we can fight. We have more and more variability in tactical formations, when we just meet with teams of a comparable level. If we can leave the group, it will be a great success for us, ”the official website of UEFA quotes Semak.
At the same time, Artyom Dziuba in the last match of the national championship scored a hat-trick and gave two assists. This season, the striker simply leaves no chance to rivals. He already scored 19 points for performance in all tournaments, plus three times scored and three times assisted partners in the last two matches as part of the national team.
In the Champions League, Dziuba also does not remain silent. In Lyon, he helped distinguish Serdar Azmun, and in the game with Benfica, he opened the scoring for his goals. As for the Iranian, he started the season not too confidently and in each match he missed a couple of right moments, but by the fall, it seems, he got in shape. In the Champions League, he has already scored two goals.
It will be especially difficult to cope with the killer duo of Zenit strikers “Leipzig” because the main central defender of the team Ibraim Konate will miss the match due to an injury. He received damage just in an unsuccessful duel for the Nagelsman team with Lyon. Now the coach will not have the opportunity to resort to a periodically applied arrangement with three central defenders, or the player will have to throw another role into the center of defense, which in any case is a risk.
Zenit has a clear structure, especially when it controls the ball. Petersburgers like to play widely and rely on innings from the flanks. Sometimes they defend with a very high line of defense. Of course, a victory will significantly increase our chances of reaching the playoffs, ”the club’s official website quoted Nagelsman as saying.
However, at home Leipzig is unlikely to act on defense, and therefore Semak will have to puzzle over how to neutralize Marcel Zabitzer, Yussuf Poulsen, Emil Forsberg and team top scorer Timo Werner, who has already chalked up eight goals this season , including twice afflicted Benfica.
Also, the coaching staff of the guests will have to make a difficult decision regarding the goalkeeper position. This season, Andrey Lunev made a number of mistakes and, in the end, landed on the bench not only in the national team, but also in the club. The last two matches in the RPL at the last turn of the Petersburgers were held by Mikhail Kerzhakov. Probably, he will get to the base in Leipzig.
The failure of Petersburgers from Mancini and the German past of Semak
Recall that it was Leipzig one and a half years ago who knocked out the Russian team from European cups.
Then the teams crossed paths at the 1/8 finals of the Europa League. The fate of the first match in Germany was largely decided by Werner. He gave the assist and scored on his own. Goal Domenico Krshito in the end helped “Zenith” only to revive the intrigue - 1: 2.
Unfortunately, Petersburgers were the first to miss the house, and again, Werner, who gave the assist, didn’t do without productive actions. Before the break, the status quo on the scoreboard was restored by Sebastian Driussi, but Roberto Mancini's wards failed to score the second goal. Moreover, Werner in the end did not realize a penalty. So the striker of the German national team became a real “evil genius” of “Zenith”.
And before the match, the clubs arranged a comic skirmish on Twitter about that confrontation. Initially, the German side published a video with the goals of its players in the gates of “Zenith”. Petersburgers replied that two goals were scored offside at once, but the hosts posted a detailed storyboard of episodes confirming their innocence.
We already know how to find the back of the 🥅 against @fczenit_en!
🔴⚪ # DieRotenBullen # UCL # RBLZENpic.twitter.com / nnNv6in9LB
Now the blue-white-blue will try to take revenge on Lepizigu on the field already under the leadership of Semak. By the way, the coaching career of a specialist began precisely with a meeting with the German team. In March 2014, he temporarily led Zenit after the resignation of Luciano Spalletti and helped blue-white-blue away beat Dortmund Borussia in the Champions League 1/8 finals. Unfortunately, in St. Petersburg in the first match, Zenit lost - 2: 4, and that victory brought Semak and his wards only moral satisfaction.
But in 2008, Petersburgers, on their way to triumph in the UEFA Cup, immediately knocked out two teams from Germany from the fight: Bayer with Dmitry Bulykin and Bayern itself headed by Oliver Kahn, who spent the final season in football. As a result, the last match of the legendary goalkeeper in European competition turned out to be a failure - in the return semifinal meeting, he conceded four unanswered goals in St. Petersburg, and that game was included in the list of historical for Russian teams.