Zenit approached the most important match with Ural in an objectively difficult psychological situation. Housewarming is a great event for any football team - because of the still unresolved problems with the lawn at Krestovsky, it became the subject of fans 'jokes and players' concerns. Another negative background is elimination from the championship race after being defeated by Spartak. The third is the recent statements by agent Shatov about conflicts in the locker room.
The leader in points scored in the spring part of the championship came to visit Zenit, which is experiencing discomfort. "Ural" is on the move, won the last four RFPL matches (three - dry), reached the final of the Russian Cup. This I mean that it would be naive to wait for a simple game.
Although tickets for the first match were sold only to the lower sector of the stadium, the fans celebrated the housewarming with a spectacular performance. It was up to the players.
Starting bulk pumped up
Zenit kicked off powerfully, clearly counting on an early goal. In the first 10 minutes, the guests played a retreat, and Krishito and Ivanovic won the "air" and dispersed the attacks again. Krishito even shot - he ran to someone else's penalty area, the Ural defenders pressed against him did not meet him and the Italian shot from a distance. The second hit is also from outside the penalty area.
Zenit was in a hurry, but the guests quickly got their bearings and began to meet rivals away from their own penalty area. It was impossible to pass the "fence" of eight players through the center, so I had to fall on the flanks. There was a certain misunderstanding between Dzyuba and the rest of the attack group. Artyom himself was more often on the flank than in the center of the attack. He hung on the left in the area where, except for him, there was no one else. As a result, for the entire first half, he never won a riding ball and did not throw it off Juliano or Danny under attack. Already when the teams went to the room under the stands, Juliano emotionally explained something to the striker. Judging by the gestures, that it is better not to go too far to the flank.
They gave the ball - hit it!
Half an hour later, Ural, with a 30% ball possession, was not inferior to Zenit in terms of the number of shots on goal. The throws weren't dangerous. Only two in the target, and those harmless, weak. But this focus on the gate commands respect. Literally every time Pavlyuchenko managed to catch the ball in the central circle, Ural brought the attack to the point of hitting. Bikfalvi beat most of all: he played in an atypical position in the center of midfield, but he did not lose his activity in the attack. By the 40th minute, Lunev had been hit on goal eight times.
Half digit: three strokes of Chisamba Lungu. This is not so much, but the whole Zenit had the same.
Surprise in the second half
Everyone expected that Zenit would improve from the 46th minute. Oddly enough, Ural added. Three strikes in five minutes is strong. At first, Dimitrov was the first on the rebound and shot from outside the penalty area. The next moment was scoring: Yusupov unexpectedly "presented" the ball Emelyanov, he put the body to Ivanovich, dragged the ball and beat from the center of the penalty area - he hit the post. After that, Zenit woke up and pushed the game away from their goal. Mircea Lucescu released Mollo instead of Yusupov and sent Juliano in a pair with Dziuba, and Danny went to the left flank of the attack. A little earlier, at the end of the first half, instead of the injured Kokorin, he left Shatov.
Deletions are key in the game
By the 60th minute, Zenit pressed the rivals to the penalty area, although it had not yet come to dangerous strikes. The match became rather nervous, but Ural held on. And then the main moment in the game happened. Bikfalvi, having a yellow card, went into a hard tackle and ... got to the ball, but then drove on Smolnikov's leg. Arbiter Eskov decided to show the second yellow. He was immediately surrounded by the Ural players: Lungu hugged the referee for a minute and seemed to be telling the story of his life, and Pavlyuchenko tried to butt, pushed his team-mate at Eskov and also emotionally expressed something. Another removal. A strange decision. The referees are under pressure in 10 episodes per game, do not decide everything with deletions? Although Pavlyuchenko's yellow card for attacking the judge, perhaps, should have been shown.
After a double removal, shots went to the goal of Zabolotny. From the 60th to the 80th minute, Petrograd struck nine times. But sending off did not solve the problem with hits on target: eight out of nine were missed. "Ural" played according to the classic yard scheme "4-4-nobody". It worked out reliably.
Zenit hit on the 86th minute, Ivanovich hammered the ball literally from the goal line after a corner kick. Emelyanov and Dziuba were pushing a little behind. Then they knocked together again. Emelyanov held the striker with both hands, in response he waved him off and hit the back of the head with his elbow. Finally, the judge intervened, who clearly missed the episode and simply showed both of them a yellow card. Yemelyanov had it second. He will also miss the game against Spartak in the next round.
Playing with eight players, Ural created a goal-scoring chance in the 91st minute and could have made this match legendary, but Dimitrov was unable to beat Luneva... And in the third added minute, three Zenit players fell on the goalkeeper. It is logical: just three of the "Ural" were missing. Victory with a score of 2: 0 in the debut match at the new stadium. But was it really football?
No, we don't need video replays: the referees are also participants in the game, which means they have the right to make mistakes. We love football for emotions, and mistakes add emotions to it. And all that ... I wonder if they will continue to say something like that after such a match.
Football reviews, news, transfers, rfpl, Spartak, Barcelona, Juventus, Real and other clubs Our group in VKONTAKT - https://vk.com/futbolnye_hroniki "ZENIT" OPENED KRESTOVSKY VICTORY. “URAL” RECEIVED THREE REMOVALS “Zenith” defeated “Ural” in the match of the 24th round of the Premier League - 2: 0. The game became the first in history on the new arena "St. Petersburg", which was built on the site of the Kirov stadium. This match, the first test match for the 2017 Confederations Cup stadium and the 2018 World Cup, was held under a closed roof. Honored and People's Artist of Russia Mikhail Boyarsky worked as the announcer at the stadium. At the announcement of the squads, the spectators (according to FIFA requirements, the game could not be attended by more than 25 thousand fans, as a result 20,004 attendance was recorded) booed Zenit forward Alexander Kokorin and head coach Mircea Lucescu. At the beginning of the game, the organized fans of the blue-white-blues held a large-scale performance "Back to the Future". At the same time, the fans, despite the safety requirements, used flares and smoke bombs. At the end of the first half, Kokorin was injured. Instead, Lucescu put Oleg Shatov on the pitch. In the second half, the guests were in the minority. Ural midfielder Erik Bikfalvi received a second yellow card in a subcategory against Igor Smolnikov, after which the forward of “bumblebees” Roman Pavlyuchenko in an aggressive manner began to express dissatisfaction with the decision of the chief referee Alexei Eskov. The attacker got down with the referee head to head, and then twisted his finger at his temple and addressed the judge in a raised tone because of the backs of the partners who cut him off from Eskov. Zenit scored the winning goal at the end of the set. The gate of Nikolai Zabolotny was struck by Branislav Ivanovich. After that, Eskov showed yellow cards for the skirmish to Ural midfielder Roman Emelyanov and St. Petersburg striker Artem Dzyuba. For the midfielder of the guests, the punishment turned into a removal, the third in the match for the team of Alexander Tarkhanov. In the end, the second goal of “Zenith” in the attack “three to zero” was spent by Ioan Mollo. Zenit is in third place with 46 points. The second CSKA has 47, Spartak has 54 before today's away match against Rostov. Ural with 29 points remained in 10th place. In the next, 25th round, the club from Yekaterinburg on Tuesday, April 25, will play on a visit with Spartak, and on Wednesday, April 26, the St. Petersburg team will play on a visit with Orenburg. Russian Championship Premier League Round 24 Zenit (St. Petersburg) - Ural (Yekaterinburg) - 2: 0 (0: 0) Goals: Ivanovich, 86 (1: 0). Mollo, 90 + 4 (2: 0). Zenit: Lunev, Smolnikov, Ivanovich, Krishito, Zhirkov (No, 63), Tsallagov, Julianu, Yusupov (Mollo, 53), Danny, Kokorin (Shatov, 44), Dzyuba. Ural: Zabolotny, Kulakov, Dinga, Balazhits, Dansev, Dimitrov, Emelyanov, Bikfalvi, Lungu (Merkulov, 68), Ilyin, Pavlyuchenko. Warnings: Bikfalvi, 23. Emelyanov, 40. Dziuba, 86. Krishito, 89. Send-offs: Bikfalvi, 61 (second housing estate, rough play). Pavlyuchenko, 62 (non-sporting behavior). Emelyanov, 86 (second housing estate, non-sporting behavior). Judges: ESKOV. Eleferenko, Mosyakin (all Moscow). April 22. St. Petersburg. Stadium "St. Petersburg Arena".
Ten years. For ten long years, all those associated with Zenit have been waiting for the stadium on Krestovsky Island to host its first match. When the old arena - the Kirov stadium - was demolished, they thought that the new building would be able to see football in 2-3 years. Then 2006 was in the yard. The first stone of Zenit Arena was laid in 2007. The original completion date is March 2009, and was postponed, according to official figures, due to the death of the Japanese arena architect Kisho Kurokawa and the ensuing design difficulties. The opening of the stadium was postponed every year for periods ranging from 12 to 24 months. There were even doubts whether he would be ready for the 2018 World Cup, as there were problems with the contractor. And, fortunately, by December 2016 it was announced that the main construction work had been completed, and in April 2017 Krestovsky will be ready to host the first match.
A vivid personification of this epic just before the Zenit - Ural match was the story of Vladislav Radimov about how he, in a conversation with Andrei Arshavin, talked about whether he would have time to play at the new stadium or not. As a result, most likely, Arshavin himself will not have time. And Radimov, we recall, hung up his boots at the end of 2008. There was no entertainment program before the fight, as the organizers immediately warned: this is not an opening match, this is one of three test games before the Confederations Cup. The fight turned out as if in an arena, since they decided to remove the roof because of the February weather in April Petersburg. The only thing that was solemn was a symbolic hit on the ball by Vladimir Kulik, one of the best scorers in the history of Zenit. Kulik passed the ball to Roman Pavlyuchenko, after which the game began.
First time.
Despite the fact that dangerous moments rained down from the very beginning of the fight, it was impossible to call it interesting in the first minutes. There were too many mistakes and defects on both sides. Actually, this is what allowed the goalkeepers to warm up in the starting ten minutes. The first goal in the history of Zenit-Arena could have been scored as early as the 4th minute. Domenico Criscito struck an aimed blow from the center of the alien half of the field - the ball flew right on target, and only a sharp shot by Zabolotny allowed Ural to avoid problems in this situation.
Five minutes later, the hosts struck another dangerous blow - already from a closer distance. It was Danny from the bow area who again checked the reaction of the goalkeeper of the "bumblebees" - it turned out to be excellent again. And for the time being, the Urals did not let them get closer - the wards of Alexander Tarkhanov were very tightly located near their penalty area. Only after the 10th minute they began to appear on the other side of the field.
During these raids, Ural created a little hassle at the Zenit goal: Emelyanov and Bikfalvi shot dangerously from a distance, but in both cases Lunev confidently took the ball into his hands. Towards the middle of the half, the game calmed down. And it leveled off. Yes, Zenit had a little more possession of the ball, but Yekaterinburg tried not to give the initiative to the opponent, and when there was an opportunity, the guests threw the ball over the central circle and rushed forward with considerable forces.
The 23rd minute was significant: Bikfalvi fouled on Tsallagovo and received the first yellow card in Krestovsky's history. A dubious achievement, but it, like other important events, needs to be recorded - after all, the first match at the stadium, which has been waiting for ten years. Zenit did almost nothing in attack, although it made more emphasis on attacking actions than Ural. Although Mircea Lucescu's charges acted in a variety of ways, they just lacked what the “blue-white-blue” were constantly doing in previous matches - crossings for Dziuba.
The first episode, when Artyom benefited on the second floor, happened already in the 30th minute, when there was a discount on Juliano, who was supposed to go one-on-one with Zabolotny, but slipped, allowing Zabolotny to pick up the shell. The stadium gasped - largely because nothing more dangerous had happened for a long time. A couple of minutes after that, there was a reason to gasp again, but this time for the more sad for Zenit fans: Pavlyuchenko fired from the bow, Lunev fixed the ball, but hesitantly. If Roman had broken through harder, the people of St. Petersburg would have had problems.
The game was equal, and by the end of the half Ural had even more chances. On the 40th minute Roman Emelyanov put the second yellow card in the passive of Ural, having played roughly against Kokorin in a subcategory. Alexander was injured in this situation, an electric car drove out after him, from which the Zenit forward refused, leaving the field accompanied by doctors. And three minutes later, the coaching staff of Mircea Lucescu made a forced replacement: Shatov came out instead of Kokorin, who remained on the lawn until the end of the half, but behind the edge. On the first added minute, Dziuba could have scored from the goalkeeper's corner from the corner, but in the end he missed.
Second half.
The beginning of the second forty-five minutes almost turned into a disaster for Zenit. Apparently, Alexander Tarkhanov during the break gave the instruction to go ahead with large forces in the first five minutes. The bumblebee attacks were dangerous with the postscript “potentially” up to the 50th minute. Yusupov made an unsuccessful pass back, Emelyanov intercepted the ball, beat Ivanovich in the penalty area and probably shot into the lower left corner - the post! It was the most dangerous moment at the time.
And it seemed that the Urals would continue to trample forward, but in the end Zenit, realizing how close the conceded ball was, seized the initiative. There were dangerous lumbago in the performance of Smolnikov, the game through the center improved. Yusupov was replaced by Yoan Mollo, who earned a dangerous free kick at the right edge of the penalty area. “Ural” in those minutes, as well as in the middle of the first half, again sat down in a blind defense and could not get out of it. True, there was little sense for the Petersburgers from this - there were no dangerous blows, and Zabolotny came into play only when it was necessary to enter the ball into the field.
And in the 60th minute the key moment of the match took place. Smolnikov tried to catch the ball at someone else's bow, but Bikfalvi, knocking out the ball, by inertia drove into Zenit's leg lateral. The Romanian received a yellow card for this violation, which automatically turned into a red one. In general, the episode is at the discretion of the referee, because initially Eric played the ball, and only then hit the leg. Something this moment reminded of the removal of Vidal. But in the Champions League, the removal was completely illegal - Asensio himself drove into the legs of the Chilean. Immediately Smolnikov's leg was static, only Bikfalvi played. In general, 50/50. There was a foul, but did he pull on yellow?
Everything would have worked out if Roman Pavlyuchenko had calmly reacted to this removal. But the "Sleeping Giant" exploded, began to angrily express his displeasure to the judge, in one of the moments he even butted Eskov with his head. For which, probably, he received a direct red card. No matter what happens, you can't behave like that. Even the Chelsea players in 2009, when Tom-Heening Everebo drowned Londoners' dreams of the final, were reticent. Only Michael Ballack at the very end ran after the Norwegian, trying to ask him for his arbitrariness. For Ural, the ending could have been much easier, but Pavlyuchenko let his team down.
After that, the "bumblebees" had no choice but to sit in a defensive defense and repulse the attacks of "Zenith". In St. Petersburg, Neto came out instead of Yuri Zhirkov, and Krishito moved to the usual left flank. Interestingly, even in the 11x9 game format, the hosts did not succeed in everything. Although the real chances to score appeared immediately. In the 65th minute, Juliano shot next to the counter, and a minute later Danny hit the frame of the goal. And all this happened after the Ural defender almost cut the ball into his own goal - Zabolotny helped out, but Nikolai could not knock the ball far. As a result, finishing off Danny was almost fatal for the guests.
Immediately Ural made the first substitution: instead of Chisamba Lungu, Mikhail Merkulov appeared on the Zenit-Arena field. Maybe Tarkhanov shouldn't have removed exactly Lungu - the Zambian could single-handedly organize a scoring chance. But I didn't really have to choose in such a situation. The Petersburg club created several chances in the future, but there were only a couple of dangerous ones. Although, taking into account the difference in class, in such a situation Zenit had to deal with the opponent on the move.
Only after the 80th minute did the expected massive heap on the gates of Zabolotny go, during which the Petersburgers ruined three (!) Scoring chances. At first, after the discount, Dziuba had to score with his head into the near corner of Juliano, but Balazic was ahead of him. Then Neto could hit under the same right stance, but did not hit the ball at all. And to top it off, the defender prevented Dziuba from scoring. And only on the fourth attempt, the shell ended up in the gates of Zabolotny. And even then they did not score - they pushed in. In the 86th minute, after the filing of Krishito from the standard, Ivanovich brought the sphere into the goal from the goalkeeper's limits, pushing Zabolotny there along the way - 1: 0! That is certainly from whom they certainly did not expect the authorship of the first ball at Krestovsky!
After this episode, another scandal happened: Emelyanov seemed to push Dziuba too zealously, Artyom did not like it, and he almost hit Roman's face with his elbow. Then the skirmish began, the result of which was the presentation of the "mustard plaster" to both. But here's the catch - for the Ural footballer, he became the second. The third removal as part of the "bumblebees"! Incredible!
Before Ural, you just need to take off your hat: the guys of Alexander Tarkhanov even went on the attack in seven ways, and, moreover, in the first added minute they almost equalized the score - Lunev barely covered the ball after Dimitrov's hit. Then the Yekaterinburg team went on the attack with the whole team, and they got burned: Zenit organized a 3 on 0 counterattack, Juliano passed a pass in the penalty area to the left to Mollo, who threw a shell into the empty net - 2: 0!
Results of the match.
Honestly, right now it is difficult to objectively comment on everything that happened in the first match at the Krestovsky stadium. Not a single removal from Ural was one hundred percent. In the episode with Bikfalvi - 50/50, in the episode with Pavlyuchenko - you could also limit yourself to yellow. It's no joke, but the moment with Emelyanov's participation was perhaps the cleanest in this regard - a mutual skirmish and a second yellow card. The only moment - Eskov could have removed Dziuba, Artyom played roughly with his elbow. But would this affect the result? It is hard to say. One thing is for sure: there will be numerous reviews in the press and on TV.
In the meantime, let us state the dry facts: Zenit began the history of Krestovsky with a victory, not allowing CSKA to break away. Ural demonstrated very good football today, but ... The discipline really let us down somewhere. Yekaterinburg residents showed that they are able not only to completely leave the zone of transitional matches in the next rounds, but also to win the Russian Cup.
I came up in an objectively difficult psychological situation. Housewarming is a great event for any football team - because of the still unresolved problems with the lawn at Krestovsky, it became the subject of jokes from fans and concerns of the players themselves. Another negative background is elimination from the championship race after being defeated by Spartak. The third is the conflicts in the locker room recently handed down by Shatov's agent.
The leader in points scored in the spring part of the championship came to visit Zenit, which is experiencing discomfort. "Ural" is on the move, won the last four RFPL matches (three - dry), reached the final of the Russian Cup. This I mean that it would be naive to wait for a simple game.
Although tickets for the first match were sold only to the lower sector of the stadium, the fans celebrated the housewarming with a spectacular performance. It was up to the players.
Starting bulk pumped up
Zenit kicked off powerfully, clearly counting on an early goal. In the first 10 minutes, the guests played on the retreat, and Krishito and Ivanovic won the air and dispersed the attacks again. Krishito even shot - he ran to someone else's penalty area, the Ural defenders pressed against him did not meet him, and the Italian shot from a distance. The second hit is also from outside the penalty area.
Zenit was in a hurry, but the guests quickly got their bearings and began to meet rivals away from their own penalty area. It was not possible to pass the fence of eight players through the center, so I had to fall on the flanks. There was a certain misunderstanding between Dzyuba and the rest of the attack group. Artyom himself was more often on the flank than in the center of the attack. I hung it on the left in the area where there was no one else to be. As a result, for the entire first half, he never won a riding ball and did not throw it off Juliano or Danny under attack. Already when the teams went to the room under the stands, Juliano emotionally explained something to the striker. Judging by the gestures - that it is better for him not to go too far to the flank.
They gave the ball - hit it!
Half an hour later, Ural, with a ball possession of 30%, was not inferior to Zenit in terms of the number of shots on goal. The blows weren't dangerous. Only two in the target, and those harmless, weak. But this focus on the gate commands respect. Literally every time Pavlyuchenko managed to catch the ball in the central circle, Ural brought the attack to the point of hitting. Bikfalvi beat most of all: he played in an atypical position in the center of midfield, but he did not lose his activity in the attack. By the 40th minute, Lunev had been hit on goal eight times.
Half digit: three strokes of Chisamba Lungu. This is not so much, but the whole Zenit had the same.
Surprise in the second half
Everyone expected that Zenit would improve from the 46th minute. Oddly enough, Ural added. Three strikes in five minutes is strong. At first, Dimitrov was the first on the rebound and shot from outside the penalty area. The next moment was scoring: Yusupov unexpectedly presented the ball to Emelyanov, he put the body to Ivanovich, dragged the ball and beat from the center of the penalty area - he hit the post. After that, Zenit woke up and pushed the game away from their goal. Mircea Lucescu released Mollo instead of Yusupov and sent Juliano in a pair to Dziuba, and Danny went to the left flank of the attack. A little earlier, at the end of the first half, Shatov came out instead of the injured Kokorin.
Deletions are key in the game
By the 60th minute, Zenit pressed the rivals to the penalty area, although it had not yet come to dangerous strikes. The match became rather nervous, but Ural held on. And then the main moment in the game happened. Bikfalvi, having a yellow card, went into a hard tackle and ... got to the ball, but then drove on Smolnikov's leg. Arbiter Eskov decided to show the second yellow. He was immediately surrounded by the Ural players: Lungu hugged the judge for a minute and told the story of his life, and Pavlyuchenko tried to butt, pushed his teammate at Eskov and also emotionally told something - obviously not his life story. Another removal. It's a strange decision, the referees are under pressure in ten episodes per game, not to decide everything with deletions? Although, Pavlyuchenko's yellow card for attacking the judge, perhaps, should have been shown.
After a double removal, shots went to the goal of Zabolotny. From the 60th to the 80th minute, the Petersburgers struck nine times. But sending off did not solve the problem with hits on target: eight out of nine were missed. "Ural" played according to the classic yard scheme 4-4-nobody. It worked out reliably.
Zenit hit on the 86th minute, Ivanovich hammered the ball literally from the goal line after a corner kick. Emelyanov and Dziuba were pushing a little behind. Then they knocked together again. Emelyanov held the striker with both hands, in response he waved him off and hit the back of the head with his elbow. Finally, the judge intervened, who clearly missed the episode and simply showed both of them a yellow card. Emelyanov had it second. He also missed the game against Spartak in the next round.
Playing with eight "Ural" created a scoring chance in the 91st minute and could have made this match legendary, but Dimitrov could not beat Lunev. And on the third added, three Zenit players fell out on the goalkeeper. It is logical: just three of the "Ural" were missing. Victory with a score of 2: 0 in the debut match at the new stadium. But was it really football?
No, we do not need video repeaters: the referees are also participants in the game, which means they have the right to make mistakes. We love football for emotions, and mistakes add emotion to it. And so on. I wonder if they will continue to say something like that after such a match.