Translated material
Stumbled in the marathon
Advocaat's team lost to the middle peasants
Zenit is closely involved in eliminating debts from matches. In July, Dick Advocaat's team will have to play eight national championship matches. But she suffered losses already in the second. Yesterday, the Russian champion lost at home at Petrovsky to Spartak from Nalchik - 3:4.Surely the Lawyer looks with longing as the composition of his team decreases day by day. Ivica Krizanac was sent off in the last match with Tom, Kim Dong-jin is leaving for the South Korean Olympic team in Beijing the other day, Viktor Faizulin was not in the lineup for the match against his former team, and Pavel Pogrebnyak is still training only individually.
The situation with Andrei Arshavin’s departure is also unclear. Zenit spent the last two weeks worrying about his transfer. News about the midfielder's further employment came in batches. Barcelona, having offered 15 million euros for the leader of the Russian national team, waited a few days for the sake of decency, and ended the negotiations. Chelsea, which, according to British media reports, was ready to pay 20 million euros for Arshavin, even invited the player to London for a medical examination and to discuss the details of his personal contract, but Zenit forbade their player to leave the team. At the same time, the St. Petersburg club made it clear that Arshavin’s minimum price was 30 million euros, and it itself began negotiations on concluding a new agreement with the player.
In all this fuss, Arshavin missed the match with Tom, but came out in the starting lineup for the game with Spartak from Nalchik. The first half was clearly not successful for him. However, like the second one. During the entire game, the Zenit leader reminded himself of two weeks ago in only two episodes. One of them, however, ended in a goal.
But that was after the break. Zenit started this game with a sense of self-esteem and quickly opened the scoring. However, the visiting defender helped the home team in this: Amisulashvili accurately shot at his own goal. The St. Petersburg team returned the favor with kindness, and soon Anyukov cut the ball into his own goal. Zenit’s hospitality did not end there, and within a minute the Advocaat central defenders scored the ball into their own goal. However, the shocking five-minute period ended with a beautiful combination by the hosts and an accurate strike by Zyryanov - 2:2.
With such productive first halves, the second ones are usually rarely eventful. However, the meeting between Zenit and Spartak-Nalchik turned out to be an exception to many rules. And above all, the fact that the usually strictly organized defense of the St. Petersburg team gave one failure after another. Kim Dong-jin, before a business trip to Beijing, with an acute shortage of central defenders, was assigned precisely to this position and could not cope with the new role. But before Zenit's center of defense crumbled, the champions took the lead again: Tekke, having received the ball from Arshavin, calmly dealt with the goalkeeper.
Well, then it was the guests’ turn to score. Both of their goals came from set pieces. And the fact that these goals turned out to be twins clearly hints at the purposeful work of Yuri Krasnozhan with the team in this direction. The heroes of the episodes were central defenders Dzhudovich and Amisulashvili, who were in the right place at the right moment - 4:3. And no matter how hard Dick Advocaat stomped his feet, calling on his team to be focused and creative, Zenit failed to win back, although the hosts did manage to create a couple of dangerous moments.
According to the law of equilibrium, if some match turns out to be too bright and productive, then some should be boring and with a zero score. Just such a game took place on the same day in Ramenskoye, where Saturn hosted Moscow. A miracle did not happen: both teams did not start a new life after the break and, having played a colorless match, earned one point each - 0:0.
Rescheduled match of the 12th round: “Saturn” - “Moscow” - 0:0. Rescheduled match of the 11th round: Zenit - Spartak-Nalchik - 3:4 (Amisulashvili 11 - own goal, Zyryanov 24, Tekke 50 - Anyukov 19 - own goal, Kalimullin 20, Dzhudovich 58, Amisulashvili 69 ) .