Double Immobile, Dziuba's achievement and Douglas' injury: how Zenit lost to Lazio and lost the chances of reaching the Champions League playoffs

Last chance to advance to the playoffs

The first round of the Champions League group stage turned out to be extremely unsuccessful for Zenit.

Russian football fans assumed that St. Petersburg, in a company with Borussia Dortmund, Lazio and Brugge, would be able to compete for the playoffs, but after three matches they had only one point.

His charges of Sergei Semak scored in a home meeting with the Romans.

The hosts did not keep the winning score, despite serious personnel losses in the opponent's squad.

Thus, the return game in the Italian capital turned into a decisive one for the Russian champion.

A new misfire could deprive the team of their last chances of reaching the playoffs. 

True, Zenit on the eve of the most important match was left without Vyacheslav Karavaev, who was injured in the last round of the RPL against Akhmat.

In this situation, Semak did not dare, as in Grozny, to switch to a game of three central defenders, but sent the universal Daler Kuzyaev to the right flag of the defense. 

But he returned to the composition of Malcolm.

The Brazilian took his usual place on the right flank of the midfield, and Andrei Mostovoy was located on the opposite edge.

The company of Artyom Dzyuba in front was again made up by Alexander Erokhin, and not by Serdar Azmun, who had recovered from damage.

Lazio, on the other hand, managed to solve most of the staffing problems during the pause for the national team matches.

In particular, almost all the players of the team passed negative tests for coronavirus, with the exception of Sergei Milinkovic-Savic, who was found to have COVID-19 in the Serbian national team. 

The main scorer of the Romans, Ciro Immobile, was also restored.

On Saturday, he returned to the pitch for the first time in a long time and helped Lazio beat Crotone 2-0 in Serie A with a goal and an assist. 

However, several leading footballers of the hosts were still unable to take part in the game with Zenit, in particular, the team captain Senad Lulich and the midfielder Gonzalo Escalante, which gave the guests some chances.

A conceded goal in the third minute

Unfortunately, the game started very badly for the Petersburgers.

Already in the third minute, Lazio opened the scoring, and the same Immobile scored.

Having received a pass from Lukas Leyva, the striker neatly twirled the ball into the top nine from the semi-circle of the penalty area.

Mikhail Kerzhakov could only helplessly watch the flight of the projectile. 

Now Zenit had to score, but the team's play was not going well in the other side of the field.

Malcolm was the most active in the attack, but his passes to partners were infrequent, and dribbling attempts, as a rule, ended in nothing.

Only Dziuba tried to cling to the ball near someone else's penalty, but did not find support from his teammates. 

And in the middle of the first half, the guests completely missed the second.

This time the captain of the hosts Marco Parolo, taking advantage of Joaquin Correa's discount, struck an aimed blow into the far corner from outside the penalty area.

Kerzhakov could not save the Petersburgers again, but big questions in this situation arose to the defenders of Zenit, who did not manage to cover the opponent. 

Fortunately, finding themselves in an extremely difficult situation, Semak's wards immediately reduced the score gap.

Yaroslav Rakitskiy made his trademark long diagonal into someone else's penalty area on Dziuba.

In turn, Artyom handled the ball with the first touch, and with the second he sent it to the far corner.

This goal was his debut in the current Champions League season. 

Along the way, the forward became the most productive Russian footballer in the history of the Champions League.

With nine goals in the main European competition, Artyom beat former Spartak midfielder Andrei Tikhonov (8).

Having scored, the Petersburgers felt confident in themselves and for some time seized the initiative.

Moreover, Erokhin, after Dziuba's discount, could even bring the blue-white-blue ahead, but struck higher from the penalty line. 

However, Lazio players also created their own dangerous moments.

As a rule, they arose as a result of the gross mistakes of the Zenit players.

So, Malcolm's sawn-off shotgun in the other half led to a one-on-one Luis Alberto with Kerzhakov, but Mikhail, correctly blocking the trajectory of the blow, saved the team.

He also helped out in the time added by the referee, when Immobile, having received a pass from a partner, seemed to beat for sure.

In addition to the goals conceded, Douglas's injury was an unpleasant moment for Semak.

At the end of half an hour of the meeting, the Brazilian unsuccessfully collided with an opponent and left the field with great difficulty.

He could not continue the game, and instead of a defender, the coaching staff released Alexei Sutormin on the field.

At the same time, the Russian went to the right flank of the defense, and Kuzyaev moved to the center.

Fatal penalty at the beginning of the second half

The guests started the second half actively and even struck a few shots on goal.

However, they turned out to be not too dangerous.

But Lazio realized the very first chance they created after the break.

Zenit lost the ball in midfield and the hosts launched a lightning attack on the right flank.

It seemed that the St. Petersburg players had time to come back, but Barrios played extremely inaccurately in the subcategory against Immobile and knocked him down in his own penalty area.

The referee without hesitation pointed to the "point", and the striker converted the penalty and scored a double.

Kerzhakov guessed the direction of the ball, but did not get it. 

In this situation, Semak could only make replacements in order to at least slightly refresh the composition.

After an hour of the game, the coaching staff threw Leon Musaev and Azmun into battle.

And 15 minutes before the final whistle, Azmun and 18-year-old Daniil Shamkin entered the game.

In general, Zenit had more possession of the ball in the second half of the meeting, but this possession did not translate into dangerous moments.

Petersburgers very rarely penetrated into someone else's penalty area and, as a rule, made do with long-range shots.

At the same time, Dziuba actively clung to the ball, but did not receive support from the tired Erokhin.

In addition, Lovren received a yellow card in the 48th minute.

She became the third for the Croat in the current Champions League season, and he will miss the next round match with Borussia.

Given the injuries of Karavaev and Douglas, the team may be left practically without a line of defense. 

Moreover, the defeat in the meeting with Lazio put an end to the dreams of Petersburgers about reaching the playoffs, since Borussia won a victory in a parallel game with Club Brugge.

Now the champion of Russia has only to fight for the third line.

And the series of matches without victories in the group stage of European cups for domestic clubs increased to 14.