One shot on target, Azmuna's own goal and Santos removal: Zenit lost to Benfica and flew out of European competition

Hope for Leipzig and the loss of Zenith

The current European Cup season is extremely unfortunate for Russian clubs. By December, they did not score even five points against the UEFA odds table and lost sixth place in it, giving them the right to put up three teams in the Champions League.

Zenit could slightly improve the situation, which, unlike Lokomotiv, retained the chances of reaching the playoffs of the main European competition. Moreover, in this situation, not everything depended on the Petersburgers.

In the event of a home victory of Lyon over Leipzig in a parallel match of Group G, the Russian champion in any case remained outside the first two according to the results of face-to-face meetings with rivals. However, Sergei Semak urged the wards not to think about the game in France.

“We will proceed from the situation. It is clear that a draw is more beneficial to us than Benfica. We need to concentrate on our game, and not monitor the situation in Lyon. This is the main task, and then we'll see if it will be necessary to be distracted or not, ”the coach emphasized.

Benfica needed a victory in order to at least take third place and qualify for the Europa League. Thus, Zenit could knock out a direct competitor of Russia from the fight according to the coefficient table.

Unfortunately, on the eve of the decisive meeting, Petersburgers could not do without serious personnel losses. First, the disqualifications earned Daler Kuzyaev and key central defender Yaroslav Rakitsky, without whom the team is hard to imagine. Secondly, Sebastian Driussi and experienced Yuri Zhirkov were injured.

As a result, Semak made fairly predictable changes in the composition. Rakitsky’s place in the center of defense was expectedly taken by Jordan Osorio, who had played 2.5 years in Portugal before renting at Zenit. And in the midfield, Oleg Shatov and Alexander Erokhin were located, who were at the base of the last RPL match against Dynamo.

The starting lineup for the match # BenficaZenit! pic.twitter.com/3XJOcBIXcA

Equal time and good news from France

Teams started the game with neat intelligence. No one was in a hurry to run forward in the opening. However, after 15 minutes, Benfica carried out several notable attacks. First, Pizzi struck a dangerous blow from outside the penalty area, and the ball flew close to the nearest nine, and then Chiquinho shot above the crossbar. Crowned as unpleasant for the “Zenith” segment hit Alejandro Grimaldo from the free kick in the hands of Mikhail Kerzhakov.

Fortunately, at this moment Leipzig in Lyon came forward, Emil Forsberg scored a penalty. This meant that Sergei Semak's wards no longer depended on the outcome of their own match, because in case of equality of points with Lyon and Benfica, they bypassed them in the number of points scored in face-to-face meetings.

And in the middle of the first half, the German team in France earned another penalty and doubled the lead. Everything went perfectly for the Zenith. And the players of the Russian team themselves finally came to their senses and had several unpleasant counterattacks.

It is noteworthy that the guests struck the first shot on goal of Odysseos Vlaukhimos only in the 34th minute. Serdar Azmun from outside the penalty area sent the ball to billboards. However, soon the Iranian shot from a long distance is much more dangerous, this time the ball went near the rod. These two hits remained the only ones for Zenit in the first half.

But in general, the domestic team acted quite calmly and played on the account. Blue-white-blue did not demonstrate incredible football, but the opponent’s game did not imagine defeat. Zeros on the scoreboard looked quite logical.

The terrible failure of Petersburgers and the sad end

But the second half began for “Zenith” with a real “cold shower”. Before the hosts managed to play the ball from the center of the field, the Petersburgers failed on the right flank of the defense and allowed Benfica to bring the matter to a cross into the penalty area. And there Ivanovich unexpectedly waved his foot past the ball, after which the Lisbon could only deliver the shell into the gates of others.

In parallel, “Lyon” won one goal against “Leipzig”, and the fate of the champion of Russia hung in the balance. Finally, “Zenith” lost the thread of the meeting after a hand game in their own penalty area performed by Douglas Louis. For her, the Brazilian received a second yellow card, and St. Petersburg - a penalty, which was implemented by Pizzi.

After that, Benfica played for its own pleasure and calmly time after time broke the defensive line of the Zenith. For a short while, wards of Semak only came closer to the end of the meeting. At this point, the team finally managed to deliver the first shot on target in the match. At the 77th minute. Serdar Azmun after delivering a corner struck under the crossbar with a rebound from the lawn, but Vladahodos parried the shot in a beautiful jump.

And after a few minutes, the Iranian scored, but into his own net. This time the forward came to the corner near his own goal and unsuccessfully substituted himself under the ball. In the end, all Zenit fans no longer watched what was happening on the field, but rather followed events in France.

Unfortunately, the ending there turned out to be very sad for the Russian team. At the 82nd minute, Memphis Depay equalized and put Lyon into the Champions League playoffs. So blue-white-blue remained the fourth redundant in group G and in the spring they will not play in European competitions.

Now the wards of Semak can only go on vacation, and the Russian fans - to believe in “Krasnodar”. If Southerners on Thursday do not beat Getafe away, domestic clubs for the first time since 2002 will be left without a European cup spring.