Dziuba's double, a controversial penalty and Azmun's successful substitution: how Zenit beat Dynamo in the RPL

In the central match of the 18th round of the RPL, Zenit hosted Dynamo.

Petersburgers unsuccessfully ended a failed campaign in the Champions League, having suffered defeat from Borussia Dortmund and were then forced to hold the most important meeting in the national championship.

In turn, the blue and white had the opportunity, in case of victory, to reduce the gap from the opponent to one point.

At the same time, the first round game between the teams ended with an unexpected defeat of the reigning champion with a minimum score.

It became the first for Sergei Semak's wards in 11 months in the RPL.

However, the chances of Muscovites for success in St. Petersburg, according to the statistics, were initially small, because here Dynamo suffered five defeats in a row. 

The last victory came in 2014.

Then the blue and white took the upper hand - 4: 2, but the match was finished ahead of schedule due to the fact that the hosts' fans ran out onto the field.

As a result, “Zenith” was awarded a technical defeat.

The teams approached the next derby with almost optimal lineups.

Both Semak and Sandro Schwartz could count on all their leaders.

As a result, the Petersburgers expectedly bet on a 4-2-3-1 formation with Artyom Dzyuba at the fore.

The forward in the match against Borussia came only as a substitute, and therefore got the opportunity to rest.

However, the coaching staff of the hosts on the eve of the key match with Spartak found an opportunity to save a number of leaders.

Yuri Zhirkov, Alexander Erokhin, Daler Kuzyaev and Serdar Azmun remained on the bench.

And the injured Mikhail Kerzhakov did not get into the hare at all. 

In turn, the guests "mirrored" the opponent's scheme.

Dynamo's support zone has two players at once: Nicola Moro and Roman Neustadter.

At the same time, it was not the striker of the Russian national team Nikolai Komlichenko, but the young Vyacheslav Grulev, who was again at the forefront of the attack.

Dziuba's 85 goals for Petersburgers

Dynamo started the match quite actively and literally crushed the opponent in the first minutes.

The metropolitan team immediately turned on high pressure, which became the blue-and-white chip with the arrival of Schwartz.

The attacking group of the guests' footballers did not allow the opponent's defenders to start attacks quickly. 

As a result, already in the second minute, Daniil Lesovoy could open an account.

After filing Sebastian Shimanski, the footballer of the Russian youth team struck directly from the penalty area, but missed the target.

And in the next attack Grulev struck from a long distance into the hands of Andrei Lunev.

It seemed that Dynamo, well tuned in to the derby, would achieve their goal due to physical readiness, but the goal that did not follow from the logic of the game completely demoralized them.

The guests allowed Sebastian Driussi to serve from the right flank, and Roman Evgeniev knocked the ball straight to Alexei Sutormin.

In turn, the Russian, who again came out on the edge of the defense, made a transfer to Dziuba, and he, in touch, sent a shell to the far corner.

Having scored, Zenit calmly began to act from the opponent.

The hosts allowed Dynamo to own the ball, but it didn’t come to dangerous shots on goal by Lunev.

The guests did not seem to understand how they could hack the defense of the reigning champion. 

Finally, everything became clear after a rather controversial penalty kick against the hosts.

After an hour of the meeting, Douglas dos Santos made a serve to Dziuba from outside the penalty area, which was interrupted by a defender in the subcategory.

However, the judge Sergei Ivanov, after a meeting with his colleagues at VAR, went to watch the replay and appointed a penalty.

The referee showed the Dynamo captain a yellow card and pointed to a point.

In turn, Dziuba converted the penalty.

Thus, Artyom with ten goals broke into the leaders of the scorer race of the current RPL season.

Also, the forward with 85 goals climbed to fourth place in the list of the best scorers in the history of the club, ahead of Vladimir Klementyev.

Malcolm almost scored next.

After the partner's discount, the Brazilian delivered a strong and accurate blow from the semicircle of the penalty area, but the projectile hit the crossbar. 

Competent castling of Semak

After the break, Dynamo had no choice but to go forward.

However, the young Grulev did not succeed in clinging to the ball alone.

Therefore, ten minutes later, Schwartz took a risk.

Instead of holding midfielder Daniil Fomin, forward Komlichenko entered the field. 

And castling immediately bore fruit.

The guests made a quick counterattack, and Ozdoev in his own penalty area violated the rules on Grulev.

At the same time, this episode recalled the moment with the appointment of a penalty kick to the Dynamo goal, since the midfielder of St. Petersburg also fouled after the opponent's shot on goal.

The penalty kick was realized by Komlichenko, who just a minute before had appeared on the field.

Having reduced the backlog to a minimum, the blue and white perked up and pushed the opponent to the gate.

However, Semak immediately replied to the guests with his competent replacement.

Instead of Ozdoev, he released the third central defender Dmitry Chistyakov.

This castling helped the reigning champion of Russia to put things in order in defense.

After her, Dynamo no longer created dangerous moments at the gate of Lunev. 

But Zenit could well remove all questions about the winner of the match ahead of schedule, but Dynamo twice saved the bar.

First, Dejan Lovren, after a corner kick, shot into the rack, and then Sutormin lacked a little luck.

In turn, Semak, mindful of the derby with Spartak, removed Malcolm and Sebastian Driussi from the field.

And as a result, Serdar Azmun, who came out instead of the Argentine on the field, put an end to the confrontation in the 84th minute.

The hosts took advantage of Guillermo Varela's blunder in their own penalty area, while the Iranian hit the target from close range and caught up with Dziuba in the RPL scorers race. 

Thus, before the derby against Spartak, Zenit managed to break away from the principal rival in the standings and take revenge for the defeat in the first round.

Dynamo in St. Petersburg suffered their sixth defeat in a row.