Debt to the Motherland

Dick Advocaat spared the Dutch club

Zenit St. Petersburg cannot count the first match of the group stage of the UEFA Cup as an asset. Dick Advocaat's team, playing in the numerical majority during half the meeting with the Dutch Alkmaar, failed to win - 1:1.

The St. Petersburg team is finishing the season against the backdrop of ongoing talk about Dick Advocaat leaving Zenit at the end of the season. The Australian national team is interested in the services of the Dutch coach, where they have retained pleasant impressions of the work of Guus Hiddink and now they certainly want someone from the Netherlands. Zenit, in turn, also seems to be pleased with Advocaat’s work and offers him a contract extension for another two years on improved terms. He doesn't say yes or no. At first, Advocaat claimed that he would remain in St. Petersburg if his team made it to the Champions League. Now that the minimum task has almost been completed, the coach again took time to think. At the same time, the Australian media claim that Advocaat has allegedly already concluded a preliminary agreement with their national federation, and the fact that the Dutchman will arrive in London on November 17 for the Australia-Nigeria friendly match only confirms this assumption.

In any case, Advocaat will work in St. Petersburg by the end of the year, and the city hopes that the Dutchman will hand over the team to the new coach - a participant in the spring stage of the European Cups. Moreover, Zenit’s group is quite passable. The same “Alkmaar” that was sensational in recent years is no longer so formidable. Having sold off the leaders in the summer, Louis van Gaal's team is now in the middle of the standings without much chance of once again wedging into the tight ranks of the traditional favorites of the Dutch championship.

But even such an opponent created huge problems for Zenit, which dreamed of winning the Champions League. The hosts spent the entire first half attacking the Alkmaar goal, striking wide, hitting the posts and the goalkeeper, but still they had to fight back. A rare counterattack by the Dutch allowed them to take the lead - in the 20th minute, Ari successfully completed his teammate's pass from the flank. But at the end of the half, the same Ari became an anti-hero. The Alkmaar striker deliberately knocked down the opposing defender on the way to the opponent's goal, and then, trying to avoid punishment, ran a little more and fell on the lawn himself. The punishment of the Cypriot referee Kostas Kapitanis for a double violation - roughness and subsequent simulation - turned out to be severe: expulsion.

It took Zenit no more than two minutes to realize their numerical advantage, just like in hockey. Almost in a retaliatory attack, Zyryanov was brought down in someone else's penalty area, and Kapitanis was again merciless towards the offenders. The penalty awarded by the Cypriot was clearly converted by Tymoshchuk.

It seemed that in the second half Zenit would easily put the squeeze on the opponent. However, Alkmaar defended very competently in the minority, and with the initiative of the game, the St. Petersburg team did not create many truly scoring chances. And at the end of the meeting, Zenit almost missed a draw.

Andrey VDOVIN