Zenit removed a competitor

Zenit defeated Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League match

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Zenit defeated Shakhtar Donetsk in front of the country's president Dmitry Medvedev and took the lead in Group G of the Champions League. A victory in the next home match over APOEL should be enough for the St. Petersburg team to advance to the playoffs, while Shakhtar practically lost the opportunity to continue the fight.

The tournament situation before this match was such that even a draw left Shakhtar no chance of continuing the fight, while for Zenit such a result would not have been a disaster. Apparently, the fear of losing played a cruel joke on the Pitmen in the first half, when Shakhtar showed absolutely nothing in attack. Mircea Lucescu's team was apparently influenced by the first game with Zenit in Donetsk, when in open football Shakhtar was completely outplayed by the Russian champions, and only the skill of Alexander Rybka and Zenit's mistakes in defense did not allow them to win.

Mircea Lucescu is looking for the best combinations in defense, although the pair from the Ukrainian national team Chigrinsky - Rakitsky did not seem to raise any doubts before. However, unexpectedly this line of Shakhtar failed in Donetsk, and the last championship match against the modest Oleksandriya turned out to be terrible for Shakhtar’s defenders. The Kucher - Rakitsky pair made many mistakes, and the latter was also sent off.

However, in St. Petersburg, due to Chigrinsky’s injury, Lucescu had no choice, and this combination played again. Looking ahead is not the best way.

But in attack, the Romanians were paired with Luiz Adriano Eduardo, who played more in the right inside position. The injured Jadson and Fernandinho, who were replaced in the center of the field by Alex Teixeira and Mkhitaryan, also could not play.

Luciano Spalletti , in turn, surprised Danny by entering the field, who had been training on his own in recent days, but managed to recover. But Kerzhakov never recovered, and Bruno Alves was replaced by Hubochan in the center of defense.

The goal scored by Lombaerts already in added time to the first half became logical, although Zenit had much better opportunities to open the scoring. But Oleksandr Rybka caught the courage again, and only his skill allowed Shakhtar to hold out for so long. One can only guess whether Zenit is improving so much in European Cup matches, or whether there is really a serious difference in class between the champions of Russia and Ukraine... But at first, Shakhtar was not visible on the field, and even forays into the other half of the field were rare for guests . Although a lot could have changed in the episode in the 27th minute, when in a collision with Lombaerts, Alex fell as if knocked down. It seemed that the Belgian was hitting his opponent in the legs, but the Brazilian also began to fall even before that. Stefan Lannoy, however, made a different decision: he did not award a penalty and did not give Teixeira a warning for simulation.

However, in the opening half hour and at Rybka’s goal it was quite calm: the game was played on the outskirts of Shakhtar’s penalty area.

But in the 30th minute the first scoring chance was created, and it began. First, Denisov’s next interception of the ball in the center of the field ended with his own killer blow, but Rybka parried the ball, coping with Zyryanov’s finishing move. After 10 minutes, Danny gently crossed to Bukharov, but again Rybka parried the difficult ball. And finally, in the 45th minute, Rybka miraculously turned the ball into a corner, sent from three meters by Shirokov. However, when Zyryanov served and Lombaerts sent the ball into the net, the Shakhtar goalkeeper was already powerless.

After the break, the game changed: Shakhtar attacked, while Zenit switched to counterattacks. However, there was no sharpness in the black-and-orange's attempts; the hosts defended very confidently. At the end of the hour of play, Shirokov could have scored, but from 16 meters he missed the far corner. In response, the visitors finally hit the target for the first time: Willian shot from outside the penalty area, and Malafeev turned the ball for a corner. The Zenit goalkeeper did not have to enter the game anymore: the technical players of the guests did not know what to do with the ball, although they tried to break through on both flanks. Lucescu made changes, bringing on Douglas Costa and Evgeniy Seleznev , but nothing changed in the visitors' game.

In the 79th minute, Bukharov was supposed to answer the last questions, but in a quick counterattack after a pass, Danny missed the goal. But Zenit did not need the second goal - the Donetsk club played too toothlessly in attack.

Gazeta.Ru conducted an online broadcast of the Zenit - Shakhtar match.

News, match results, positions of teams in groups and players in the list of scorers, as well as much more about the most prestigious club football tournament can be found on the Champions League page .

Zenit removed a competitor - Gazeta.Ru