two goals per match

Zenit continues to prepare for the season in Marbella, Spain. On Saturday, Dick Advocaat's team beat the Norwegian Stromsgodset 2:1 in a friendly match. Both goals were scored by Andrei Arshavin, who led the team onto the field wearing the captain's armband for the first time.
Finally, the Zenit coach was able to test a composition close to the optimal one. Only Argentinean Alejandro Dominguez is currently listed as injured at Zenit, who will return to duty no earlier than in a week. Vyacheslav Malafeev took the place in goal in the game with the Norwegians, Ivica Krizanac, Kim Dong-jin, Alexander Anyukov, Eric Hagen took the starting line-up in defense, Vladislav Radimov, Alexander Gorshkov, Fernando Ricksen in midfield, Igor Denisov, Pavel Pogrebnyak in attack and Andrey Arshavin. The latter made his debut in the role of captain of Zenit, which Advocaat assigned to him after the famous incident between Riksen and Radimov, the previous captain of the blue-white-blues.
Zenit, like the Norwegians, had already gained good physical shape by mid-February, so the game was very lively at first. The ball kept whistling past the posts, and in the 18th minute, after a shot from the Hungarian Kovacs, the Zenit goalkeeper was almost injured, landing unsuccessfully. Let us note that in the opening of the meeting Malafeev helped out his partners more than once. And yet, in the 28th minute, he was powerless when the Norwegians played a free kick and their forward Huusko headed the ball into the goal.
Zenit changed the score twice before the break. First, Arshavin received a pass from deep in the field and beat goalkeeper Johnsen, but he violated the rules, after which the Zenit captain himself converted the penalty kick. Eight minutes later, a combination involving Radimov, Denisov and Arshavin led to success, and the forward of the Russian national team scored, going one-on-one with Johnsen. Surely the Strømsgodset goalkeeper remembered Arshavin well, because he upset him back in February 2006, when Johnsen defended the colors of the Norwegian Rosenborg (Zenith crossed paths with this club in the UEFA Cup).
After the break, Radek Shirl, Martin Skrtel and the Korean Lee Ho came onto the field at Zenit, replacing Jin, Hagen and Anyukov, respectively. Ricksen took up the right-back position, and Lee Ho moved to midfield. Zenit created several dangerous chances, but neither Arshavin, nor Skrtel, nor Ricksen managed to score. I also remember the episode when Vladislav Radimov threw the Norwegian goalkeeper from the center of the field, but almost miscalculated.
In the end, the pace of the match slowed down, and, despite the fact that the Strømsgodset coach made several substitutions, his players were unable to “break through” Vyacheslav Malafeev. In the last ten minutes, Dick Advocaat gave forward Yuri Rodenkov a chance, he took part in a combination that almost led to a goal (Gorshkov’s shot went over the crossbar), but did not have time to do anything else. The game ended with a victory for Zenit with a score of 2:1.
Tomorrow the St. Petersburg team will meet there, in Marbella, with Korona, which ranks third in the top division of the Polish championship.
YURI BALETOV

Newspaper "Kommersant St. Petersburg" No. 21/P dated 02/12/2007, p. 3

The new captain of Zenit still scores