Victory over CSKA, Sutormina’s competition with Malcolm and Dziuba re-signing: how Zenit football holds the off-season

Refusal to participate in the Parimatch Premier Cup and victory over CSKA

RPL clubs continue to prepare for the second part of the season, but against the background of others, St. Petersburg Zenit is slightly less noticeable. Blue-white-blue again missed one of the main off-season tournaments - the Parimatch Premier Cup, which ended on Sunday in Qatar.

This fact was noted, in particular, by the famous football commentator in the recent past, and now the blogger Vasily Utkin. He recalled a recent epic to the team from St. Petersburg with the uncomplicated rent of Alexander Kokorin. Recall, the attacker refused to go on loan to Sochi, as a result of which he was transferred to Zenit-2.

“Zenit, of course, has its own characteristics, because the team hoped to play in European competitions. Now, if Zenit came to Qatar against the backdrop of the whole wave, I would say that Kokorinavirus, of course, this would give the tournament a wonderful and fascinating nuance, ”Utkin noted in the show on his YouTube channel.

Obviously, having secured a ten-point handicap for himself from the closest pursuers over the course of 19 rounds, Zenit decided to prepare for the spring part of the season according to its own plan. Nevertheless, the head coach of the team, Sergei Semak, once again emphasized that talking about gold medals is premature, and recalled those cases where even the top team during the tournament managed to lose an impressive points advantage.

“Nothing has been decided yet, even Barcelona lost 11 points in eight rounds, although in the end it became the champion. This is psychology, we should not look at the gap. After 15 rounds, no one said how Zenit was leading that he was a champion - then all the teams went very smoothly, any round changed everything in the top five. We succeeded in the last few matches when we met with principled rivals. We did not lose points, and competitors - on the contrary. So, a certain margin of safety has appeared, which allows us to calmly prepare for the resumption of the season, ”Semak said on the air of the Russia 24 television channel.

To date, in six friendlies that Zenit held at the training camp, the team has so far suffered only one defeat - from the Red Bull from Salzburg (3: 6). There were several major victories over modest rivals: the Qatari Al-Uvainakh (10-0), the Luxembourg Dudelange (4-0) and the Georgian Saburtalo (4-0).

But the most interesting was, of course, the meeting with Moscow CSKA. The teams almost simultaneously came to the training camp in Spain and on February 9 held a test match. Moreover, the interest in the game was so high that the leadership of the local arena even made entry to it paid: the cost of tickets ranged from 10 to € 15.

And the audience really had something to see: the blue-white-blue players who lost after the first half with a score of 0: 2 managed not only to recoup in the second half of the meeting thanks to the double of Artyom Dziuba, but also to snatch victory after an accurate hit by Serdar Azmun.

Petersburgers completed their work in Spain with yet another victory - over the Leningradets team (3: 1). This time Emiliano Rigoni marked with a double, midfielder Ilya Vorobyov scored another goal.

The team will hold the final training camp in Turkey. There, Zenit will have control meetings with the Vladikavkaz Alania, the Kazakhstani Kairat and two clubs from Minsk - Isloch and Dynamo.

Semak's complaints about the limit and the extension of the contract with Dziuba

Despite the fact that Zenit boasts one of the strongest rosters in the Russian championship, the team's mentor at the training camp complained that in the second part of the season he would be forced to release a weaker roster due to the limit on foreign players. In particular, he complained of low competition among central defenders, where only 18-year-old Danila Prokhin can now compete with foreigners. However, as the specialist noted in an interview with the Championship, there are very few high-quality defenders with a Russian passport now, this is “the problem of all Russian football”.

The Zenit coach in the attack line has much more room for maneuver. So, according to experts, Alex Sutormin got in good shape at the training camp, having given two assists in the match against CSKA, so now he is able to compete for a place in the line-up with Brazilian Malcolm. He, in turn, played one full time with the army team, but the striker still continues to gain condition: for several months he remained without playing practice, recovering from a hip injury.

Meanwhile, Sergei Semak was pleased with the performance of the legionnaire. According to him, thanks to his non-standard actions, the Brazilian brought sharpness to the game.

“These were the first 45 minutes for Malcolm over the past six months. Step by step we move forward. I hope that at the next training camp he will be able to play 70–90 minutes, will add, ”the mentor emphasized.

Another important issue in recent days has become a new contract by Semak. However, the coach admitted that he had not yet discussed the details with the club management, citing the fact that other problems had now come to the fore.

“A lot of work related to the preparation for the season, a lot of effort went into the situation related to Alexander Kokorin, so there wasn’t any specifics yet. As for me personally, I think it makes no sense to sign an agreement for one year, because in this case you have no opportunity to plan. Two years is a normal time to have time to do something, ”said the coach.

At the same time, it became known about the club extending the contract with striker Artyom Dziuba. According to Semak, the striker deserved it "one hundred percent." As the coach promised, there should be no difficulties with the re-signing of the leader, and the player himself said that he had already agreed on everything with the leadership.

“Somehow the mud poured that I started asking Aleksei Borisovich (Miller. - RT ) for something, but I'm not such an influential guy. This, of course, flatters me, but no. We talked with him after the match with Krasnodar, we understood each other. Since it’s not possible to go anywhere ... China is not, Turkey is no better than Russia. I wanted to go to England, but it did not work out. So my land is Russia. So I have to stay. There is still a lot of things that need to be done: to repeat the championship, win the Cup, prepare for the national team, ”Dziuba said on the Russia 24 television channel.