Weak consolation: why Zenit fans shouldn't rejoice at the success of Lyon and Leipzig in the Champions League

Leipzig and Lyon took a sensational victory over Atlético and Manchester City, respectively, and made their way to the Champions League semi-finals. At the same time, the German team for the first time in history reached this stage of the main European tournament, and the French team repeated its own achievement ten years ago. The successes of both teams delighted not only their fans, but also the fans and representatives of the former opponent. The press service of "Zenith" wrote that not everyone is able to beat the "weavers", hinting at a victory in the group stage, and also noted that the group was not easy for them.

In December, the reigning champion of Russia stopped playing in the tournament, finishing fourth in Group G. At the same time, Sergei Semak's charges were one point behind their rivals from Lyon and four points behind Leipzig's players. Fans and experts considered this result to be a failure, and the departure of other domestic teams from European competitions only exacerbated the situation. Then Lokomotiv, Krasnodar and CSKA also suffered a fiasco, as a result of which not a single Russian team won a ticket to the spring stage not only of the Champions League, but also of the Europa League.

But then no one could have thought that Zenit's rivals in the quartet would climb so high. Both Leipzig and Lyon were unlucky with the draw, as a result of which the first went to the finalist of the last championship draw, Tottenham, and the second to Juventus with stars of the caliber of Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala. Nevertheless, nominal outsiders were able not only to surprise the more eminent counterparts, but also subsequently create another sensation.

Of course, in recent years, the Champions League has accustomed fans to all sorts of unexpected outcomes. In 2018, the more than modest line-up of Roma reached the semifinals. At the previous stage, Eusebio Di Francesco's charges did not just beat Barcelona with Lionel Messi, but won back a three-goal deficit. The first meeting ended with a score of 4: 1 in favor of the Catalans, after which the Romans took a convincing revenge and sent three unanswered goals into the net of Marc-Andre Ter Stegen.

In 2019, the main discovery was Ajax, which amazed everyone with its sparkling and bold play. At the group stage, Eric ten Haga's charges fought on equal terms with the formidable Bayern Munich, and in the playoffs they alternately removed the current trophy holder, Real Madrid, and then Juventus from their path. True, as in the case of the Romans, the Amsterdamites stopped one step away from the title match. And their offender was the future finalist of the Tottenham tournament, not the winner of Liverpool.

Beating Lyon in the #UCL aint for everybody 😉 #MCIOLhttps: //t.co/0j9gFz6hFv

Undoubtedly, the achievements of "Leipzig" and "Lyon" cannot be understated. Both have done fantastic work and have been hugely successful. Julian Nagelsmann's wards pretended not to notice the loss of their main scorer, Timo Werner, who accounted for almost a third of all the team's goals (34 out of 106). In the summer, the German booked a transfer to Chelsea and turned down the opportunity to end the season in the Champions League. Then, many extremely negatively perceived this decision of the young striker, although his motives are very clear. Surely he decided to protect himself from injuries and calmly prepare for his debut in England.

In general, the phenomenon of "Leipzig" and "Lyon" is fairly easy to explain. Firstly, both teams are well trained and perfectly embody coaching ideas on the field. To a greater extent, this concerns the Germans, whose team play and the system of pressing are already legendary. It was here that the well-known Ralph Rangnick worked, and Nagelsmann is considered a follower of his ideas. Secondly, the teams had a serious advantage over their counterparts in terms of "physics". In the Bundesliga, the national championship ended on June 27 - three weeks earlier than in Example, and a month earlier than in the Premier League. At the same time, the French completely refused to play the championship. In view of this, both Atlético and Manchester City were much less fresh, which was one of the reasons for their failure.

Nevertheless, the success of the former opponents in the group can hardly be considered a reason for the optimism of Zenit fans. Yes, Semak's squad lost not to the weakest participants in the playoffs, but it's also hard to call them giants. It is necessary to understand that the success of Leipzig and Lyon is largely due to the format of the current tournament. In a two-match confrontation, it would be much more difficult for the bulls and the weavers to gain the upper hand, which is especially true for the latter. Unlike Atlético, Manchester City looked much stronger than their opponents and created significantly more dangerous chances, but banal bad luck prevented Pep Guardiola's players from upsetting Antoni Lopes more than once. Suffice it to recall what moments Raheem Sterling missed.

In light of this, one can recall the devastating defeat of Barcelona in the confrontation with Bayern. This season, the Germans already demonstrated much cooler and more colorful football than their opponents. And the difference in physical condition and courage contributed to the fact that the superiority turned out to be colossal. Of course, the Catalans are not so inferior in class and in the return confrontation they could have reduced the gap a little, but that evening everything turned out not in their favor.

At the same time, Zenit fans should not forget that they took not third, but fourth place in the group, and in the last round they lost not to any of the current semi-finalists, but to Benfica. As a result, the Portuguese got into the playoffs of the Europa League, but were eliminated from the tournament after the very first confrontation. Yes, it should be noted that the semi-finalist of the current tournament Shakhtar became the offender, but this does not change the essence. At a key moment, the blue-white-blue lost to their opponents, who lost their leaders in the summer and were in the process of restructuring. It is worth recalling that in 2019, the Lisbonians parted ways with the star João Felix and Raul Jimenez, as well as a number of other players, earning a total of € 223.5 million.

Thus, the defeats to the semi-finalists of the Champions League do not speak of Zenit's strength and its high chances of success in the upcoming tournament draw. On the contrary, it indicates that absolutely anyone can surprise within the framework of one match. Therefore, Semak's wards need to carefully prepare for the new European Cup campaign and seriously think about strengthening. A year ago it was already perfectly noticeable that the defensive duo of Petersburgers Branislav Ivanovich - Yaroslav Rakitskiy did not have enough speed to withstand young and high-speed opponents. Perhaps the arrival of Dejan Lovren will help make progress in this aspect, but the Ukrainian still seems too slow to participate in games of this level.

As for the middle and attacking lanes, they obviously require replenishment in the form of new acquisitions. Especially in light of the departure of Oleg Shatov to Rubin and the possible departure of Daler Kuzyaev. At the moment, the midfielder is in free agent status and continues negotiations with European clubs. If he leaves, Zenit will have virtually no alternative in the center of midfield, where only Vilmar Barrios, Magomed Ozdoev and inexperienced Leon Musaev will remain. In the attack, there is no substitution player at all in case of injury to Artem Dziuba or Serdar Azmun.