During the break from the national team’s matches, Zenit came to Kazakhstan and played with the local league leader Kairat. It turned out to be extremely productive.
While St. Petersburg fans greeted Alexander Sobolev with not very friendly reactions at the Zenit-2 match, the newcomer made his debut for the St. Petersburg team in another country. This did not surprise anyone. But the appearance on the field of Andrei Arshavin and Anatoly Timoshchuk really surprised. Moreover, the first remembered the end of his career and played for Kairat. The second also played for the Kazakh club, but still tried on the blue-white-blue uniform again.
The teams attracted media attention and temporarily brought us back to a happy past. It is a pity that Alexander Kerzhakov could not keep Arshavin company: a few days ago he stopped being the coach of the Kazakh team. So the legendary couple did not meet.
In general, the composition of “Zenith” in the absence of collections and the sick Claudinho turned out to be: Mikhail Kerzhakov, Nino, Dmitry Chistyakov, Douglas Santos, Anatoly Timoshchuk, Ilzat Akhmetov, Wendel, Alexander Erokhin, Arthur, Gustavo Mantuan, Alejandro Sobolev. In honor of the day of memory of the victims of the siege of Leningrad, they all wore commemorative T-shirts, which they will later sign and sell at a charity auction.
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Arshavin was given 13 minutes and even made a good run down the left flank. Andrei Sergeevich would have appeared in the conditional Media League even at 43 years old. Tymoshchuk does not seem to age at all: he still chooses his position wisely and is tenacious in selection. In the 19th minute, Vyacheslav Shvyrev received a yellow card for a serious violation, and only then Sergei Semak replaced the veteran with Dmitry Vasiliev.
Anatoly Timoshchuk and Andrey Arshavin
Photo: fc-zenit.ru
Kairat was not inferior to Zenit’s players: sometimes one or the other took the initiative. Wendel missed the ball from a lethal position, and Joao Paulo missed the ball into the far corner. There were other half-moments as well.
But the St. Petersburg team actually scored a goal in the 37th minute. And they did not forgive: Sobolev rolled to Akhmetov, passed to Wendel, and the Brazilian skillfully passed to Erokhin into an empty net. A brilliant combination. While everyone was waiting for a goal from Barnaul, another scored. And his fellow Altai player modestly noted it here.
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During the break, Semak replaced Kerzhakov, Nino, Douglas and Wendel with Denis Adamov, Vilmar Barrios, Luciano Gonda and Matteo Cassierra. That is, the latter two and Sobolev played at the same time. An interesting experiment yielded results.
Luciano immediately created danger out of nothing: he easily beat two players, moved to the centre and shot from distance. Substitute Danil Ustimenko played with his fists. Before the match we had a colourful interview with today’s main player Vadim Ulyanov.
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A little later, Ustimenko repelled Sobolev’s attempt after Mantuan’s serve. However, it was already impossible to finish off Cassierra.
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In the next attack, Arthur also distinguished himself. But there is one nuance: it was a crossbow. Helder Santana calmly moved away from Vasiliev in the middle of the field and threw it to Paulo, who landed on Chistyakov’s turf with a swing and shot. Adamov controlled the situation and then Arthur, wanting to take the ball out in a tackle, brought it into the goal.
Kairat were not satisfied and after an exchange of chances they scored again. Zenit again failed to cross and Georgy Zaria set up Yug Stanoev. An easier target.
In the second half, youngsters Alexander Tarasov, Georgy Kashiev, Denis Mushkarin, Nikita Bazilevsky and Evgeny Chernov played for the St. Petersburg team. The first one played as a left back. It was clear why: what a brilliant pass to Luciano! The Argentine could only raise his head.
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The striker didn’t stop there. Cassierra made an equally brilliant pass, cutting through several Kairat players at once, and Luciano skillfully converted the one-on-one. Two games, two doubles. It seems that Zenit signed a genius. It remains only to see him in the matches with the top clubs of the RPL.
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Finally, ahead of Chistyakov, Shvyrev also distinguished himself. The teams engaged in a fabulous shootout. Sobolev went into the break in the 85th minute. Overall, he looked good: he made the pre-goal pass, followed by Cassierra into an open net. But he is still far from his best form.
