Penalty on Malcolm, Dziuba's goal and Danilkin's shot to the post: how Zenit snatched victory from Khimki in the Russian Cup final

Few could have doubts that Zenit is the clear favorite of the Russian Football Cup final. This season, Sergei Semak's wards were incredibly stable and left no chance for their competitors, overtaking Lokomotiv, which is in second place, by 15 points. At the same time, the blue-white-blue looked especially impressive in the final part of the championship, having won seven out of eight matches.

Khimki have already jumped over their heads, reaching the final of the tournament. In view of the early end of the FNL championship, few people assumed that Sergei Yuran's wards would be able to compete with opponents from the Urals, who were in good shape. Nevertheless, athletes from the Moscow Region confidently prevailed and did not allow the "bumblebees" to compete for the trophy in front of their own fans.

In case of victory, Zenit could get a golden double and win both the championship and the Cup of Russia for the first time since 2010. The stakes were too high, so Semak decided to do without experiments and released all the strongest on the field. The only loss was the absence of the main goalkeeper Andrey Lunev. Mikhail Kerzhakov was called to replace him, having already tried himself in the role of the first number during the season.

Sergei Juran also did without the rotation of the line-up. The same 11 footballers appeared on the field who helped the team beat Ural and for the second time in history reach the final of the national cup. The last time athletes near Moscow reached this stage in 2005, but then also could not achieve success, losing to CSKA.

One could expect that Zenit would immediately demonstrate superiority in class over Khimki, but this did not happen. Yes, the Petersburgers looked more skilled and more skillful in combining ahead, but their opponents did not hesitate before the champion of Russia for the last two years. The red-blacks had good control of the ball, regularly delivered it to the opponent's penalty area and did not hesitate to hit from a distance. Arshak Koryan, a pupil of Lokomotiv, was the author of one of these attacks, but he turned out to be inaccurate. At the forefront, however, was Vladimir Dyadyun, who quite well imposed the struggle on the Serbian-Ukrainian duo of defenders.

Despite the status of the favorite, Zenit preferred to act as number two and wait for mistakes from Khimki. Two of these almost led to goals scored by the nominal guests. First, Artyom Dziuba won the fight on the second floor, but hit the bar, and then Malcolm performed the solo number. The Brazilian made a dash in the center and shot with the bottom, but Ilya Lantratov saved.

At the end of the half, the blue-white-blue increased the tempo a little and managed to deliver serious problems to the defense of the red-blacks. As a result of a spectacular multi-move, Vilmar Barrios ended up in a striking position, but he shot wide, and then a dangerous moment arose in Khimki's penalty area. Both Dziuba and Azmun had a chance to break through, but the defenders did not allow the ball to reach the goalkeeper.

🏆 Zenit has issued a golden double. To the victory in the championship, St. Petersburg residents added the Olympus Cup of Russia. Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/lv3sfa8a4E

During the break, Semak clearly had a conversation with his charges, as a result of which they came out over-motivated in the second half. In just a few minutes, they created three 100% chances at the Lantratov goal, but the goalkeeper caught the courage. He not only did not allow Dziuba and Azmun to score, but also reflected two hits at close range during one attack. True, these successes did not affect his partners. Khimki stepped back and for a long time did not think about forays into someone else's half.

In the next ten minutes, the game leveled off, but passions began to boil more and more on the field. First, Sergei Juran received a yellow card for talking to the referee, and then the yellow card was shown to Yaroslav Rakitsky.

Until the 83rd minute, athletes near Moscow confidently held the defense, and Lantratov continued to work wonders. So, a quarter of an hour before the end of normal time, he again caused a standing ovation from the fans, parrying Azmun's head blow. Fatal was the mistake of Evgeny Gapon, who hooked Malcolm in the penalty area. Moskalev pointed to the point, and Dzyuba easily spread the ball and the goalkeeper in different angles.

In the end, Khimki put pressure on the opponent a little and even had several excellent chances to extend the meeting by at least another 30 minutes. The tall Mohamed Konate appeared on the field, becoming one of the main protagonists of the red-black attacks. The most dangerous of them happened in the fifth compensated minute. The Ivorian made a discount after a serve from the flank, and Yegor Danilkin struck with his head, but hit the post. Immediately after that, Moskalev gave the final whistle. Zenit won and won the Russian Football Cup for the fourth time.