The champion arrived in Kazan, which in itself is an event. Things are not going well for Rubin, the former Russian champion, in the new season of the RPL, and the fate of the team’s coach, Rashid Rakhimov, seriously depends on a couple of future results.
Zenit has absolutely diametrical tasks. Firstly, the race for first place with Krasnodar and, secondly, final access to its production facilities. There are almost no casualties in the squad, except for the minor injuries of Mostovoy and Mario Fernández (two weeks out).
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But they brought in former Lokomotiv guest Izidor, who appeared on the field from the first minutes. Sergei Semak has no downtime. If a player moves to Zenit, the coach wants to see the player’s abilities in combat conditions here and now.
IZIDOR SCORE IMMEDIATELY
Before the referee had time to whistle the start, 7 minutes later the stadium spectators saw the first touch of the ball by Izidor, who received a long pass from the Zenit goalkeeper, Mikhail Kerzhakov, in transit through Mantuana, and entered the appointment. with the goalkeeper of the Kazan club, Yuri Dyupin. Other actions were purely a matter of technique. Wilson comfortably worked the ball and threw it directly into the right corner. A discouraging start for the sinking Rubin, a stable start for Zenit. Admittedly, due to the lack of offside lines in the RPL, there could well be the possibility of an offside error.
It seemed that Rakhimov’s team should have rushed to recover in front of their stands, but Zenit continued to press. Not as daring as Izidor’s goal, but indicating his enormous advantage both at the game level and at the mental level.
Photo source: RIA Novosti
ACTIVE LEGION “RUBÍN”
And yet, the St. Petersburg team gave Rubin the opportunity to make a good and quick counterattack. Albanian Mirlind Daku quickly burst into the St. Petersburg area and attempted to pass over Kerazhkov in an intricate arc. It wasn’t very accurate. A couple of minutes later, another attack by the locals almost ended in a goal. It was an advance on the right flank of the Joel Fameye aircraft attack. At that time the guests were a little confused.
At the end of the first half, Kazan again slightly overwhelmed the Semak players in their area. In some episodes, Kerzhakov even had to hit the ball with his fists, saving the situation. No, there was no fire in the champion’s area, but the situation was close to that.
Photo source: RIA Novosti
EXECUTION IN ST. PITERSKY
At the beginning of the second half nothing much changed on the field. “Zenith” meant possession of the ball, which at times in the first half was 70% to 30% for Rubin. The pace in the match was very low, the teams sometimes took a step. With such opposition, the guests were able to feel at ease and not worry about maintaining the minimum victory score.
However, Peter’s calmness was just an appearance. In the 55th minute, the Brazilian Wendel put the ball into the area, where Dupin, stunned, entered the net with the foot of Mateo Cassierra. The Colombian very easily sent the second ball into the goal of Rakhimov’s team, essentially cutting off the legs of the chair under the command of the Kazan club.
Three minutes later, Wendel again dispersed another quick Zenit attack, launching a pass to Claudinho, who rolled the ball into the corner in a close combat. 3-0 at the beginning of the second half, and in this match the only question remained: how many more goals will Zenit score against the outsider? Surprisingly, Semak’s team only took 4 shots on goal, three of which were accurate. Excellent implementation!
Photo source: RIA Novosti
EXPROPIATION OF POSSESSION
About twenty minutes before the end of the match, Zenit completely deprived the Kazan players of the ball, playing only possession. There was nothing else to decide, and keeping a clean sheet was the whole goal. Not to say Rubin was completely bad. The team tried to run and impose high pressure on the opposing players, but they were clearly in no mood to embark on a possible comeback.
As a result, the St. Petersburg players played calmly until the end, registering a defeat in Kazan with minimal physical effort. Perhaps this was just a semblance of what was happening on the field, but the feeling of training in combat conditions did not disappear until the last minutes of the match.
