Much ado about nothing: Zenit did not realize a lot of chances and defeated Spartak in the eighth round of the RPL

Crazy pressure and missed chances of Zenit

Spartak head coach Guillermo Abascal probably expected that in the confrontation with Zenit, his wards would have to face a level of pressure that they had not yet experienced this season.

In this regard, he decided to take an interesting step and released Ruslan Litvinov as a defensive midfielder, who has recently played defense more often.

This could be due to not the best game of Nail Umyarov, who repeatedly sinned with losses, and in general looked extremely insecure in conditions of aggressive pressure.

And this provoked changes in the center of defense, where Georgy Jikia was paired with Nikita Chernov.

However, the adopted permutations did not save Spartak from a large number of sawn-off shotguns at their own gates.

Muscovites tried to go on the attack through the pass, but constantly faced with tremendous pressure from the Petersburgers.

As soon as the ball got to Jikia or Litvinov, the Zenit team instantly appeared nearby and forced the opponents to make one mistake after another.

One of the roughest fell on Alexander Maksimenko, who at first took an active part in the ball rally.

An inaccurate pass led to a dangerous episode, but Andrei Mostovoy failed to seize the chance.

Looking ahead: the goalkeeper of the red and white again showed himself not in the best way in the top match and actually became one of the culprits in the episode with the goal of Dejan Lovren.

First, he hesitated to leave the target, and then did not have time to close the "house".

In general, the superiority of Zenit during the meeting was not just overwhelming, but colossal.

According to the game, the wards of Sergei Semak were head and shoulders stronger and could score against Spartak no less than in October 2021 (7:1).

Guests did not notice the resistance on the flanks, easily penetrated into the penalty area, hit freely from the support zone and only bad luck did not allow them to upset the hosts' goalkeeper over and over again.

The author of the winning goal, Mostovoy, could score a hat-trick, Mateo Cassierra and Malcolm, transferred to the base, had to record the ball at their own expense.

And don't let the final result fool you.

The difference between the teams is still great, so it's still premature to talk about the fight for gold.

The incredible performance of Sobolev and the disappearance of Promes

As for Spartak, finding positive moments in the performance of the club is quite difficult.

Litvinov's entry into the base did not become a panacea, Jikia and Chernov made many positional errors, and Khlusevich and Denisov remained weak links in defense.

Yes, in attack both look pretty good and are able to make cruising raids along the curb or cut out exact diagonals, but they are not so convincing in their own half.

Especially in confrontations with Malcolm, Mostov and the ubiquitous Wendel, who managed to both win martial arts in the middle of the field and participate in organizing the attack.

Mikhail Ignatov did not enter the game, Roman Zobnin worked hard, but did not receive support, and Christopher Martins Pereira was enough for only one cool breakthrough.

It was he who became one of the two main creators of the only red-and-white goal,

Alexander Sobolev, on the other hand, once again demonstrated that he is one of the best strikers in the country and is sometimes able to work real miracles.

In the episode with the goal scored, he designed everything perfectly: he played superbly with Martins, phenomenally processed and irresistibly struck in opposition to Mikhail Kerzhakov.

But alone, he could not oppose anything to the well-coordinated defense of the blue-white-blue.

One of the main disappointments was Quincy Promes, who failed for the second top meeting of the season.

Prior to that, he literally “dissolved” in the derby with Dynamo, was a pale shadow of himself this time too.

In 90 minutes, he only hit the goal once, did not score a single successful stroke and gave only one key pass.

Even in this case, he could become one of the main characters of the match, but his volley was parried in the last minutes by the goalkeeper.

Debut of Balde and return of Claudinho

The Derby of the two capitals was also remembered by a number of other events.

With a difference of several minutes, Litvinov and Pereira were injured, Wilmar Barrios demonstrated acting skills and fell after lightly touching Zobnin's hand with his chin, and a skirmish between Promes and Wendel almost led to a brawl involving both teams.

Against the background of all this, the debut of the newcomer Keita Balde turned out to be not so noticeable.

The Barcelona graduate appeared on the field in the 52nd minute, but was noted only by a couple of unsuccessful openings and an attempted shot from 40 meters.

True, in that case the ball never reached the target.

The Senegalese left not the most pleasant impression, especially against the background of Shamar Nicholson.

The Jamaican not only fought selflessly in every episode, but almost became the author of an assist.

There was no former brilliance in the actions of Claudinho, but in his case this is quite understandable.

The Brazilian missed the last three meetings due to injury, and his appearance on the field in the derby of the two capitals until the last remained in doubt.

As a result, the best player of the last championship received about 24 minutes of playing time and, even being in imperfect condition, he could score a goal and pass.

But his low shot from outside the penalty area did not take Maksimenko by surprise, and the cutting pass to Malcolm, who burst into the penalty area, was too strong.

Bakaev also had the opportunity to prove himself, but ten minutes was clearly not enough for him.

By that time, Zenit had already finally given the initiative to Spartak and calmly waited for the final whistle.

And although Zelimkhan still managed to hit the ball from outside the penalty area, he hardly convinced Semak of anything.