The defeat of Europe

Zenit St Petersburg once again convincingly demonstrated that a
misfire in the games with Auxerre in the Champions League was just an
unpleasant glitch. Fans of the St. Petersburg club are left to regret
that Zenit is forced to play in the Europa League after such progress.
With the kind of the game Spalletti’s wards have shown in recent
matches, Zenit has good prospects in Europe's premier club tournament.

In the match with the Greek club AEK, Zenit was already leading 2:0 in
the 12th minute. In the 45th second Gubochan surprised the Greek
goalkeeper with a superb long-range shot, scoring one of the quickest
goals of the Europa League. In the 12th minute of the match, the
bewildered Greeks were forced to re-start from the center of the
field. After a corner-kick, Alves scored his first goal for Zenit with
his head, upsetting his former team. Such a successful start had
relaxed the St. Petersburg soccer players, and in the 37th minute
Liberopoulos took advantage of this, reducing the score difference.
But within 5 minutes, a shaken Zenit stretched their lead again.
Lazovic scored a penalty and AEK remained struggling. In the second
half Lazovic made it a double, taking advantage of a beautiful tap-on
by Lukovic to make the score 4:1. Yet the Greeks managed to escape
what could have been a crushing defeat, despite being down to 10 men.
In the 83rd minute, a penalty was given to AEK for a foul by Malafeev.
Kafes accurately converted the penalty, but this didn't upset the St.Petersburg
club’s players and fans that much.

The defeat was performed by CSKA Moscow at a meeting with the Prague
Sparta. However, the game was not as easy for the CSKA team as it
might have seemed. Until the middle of the second half, CSKA players
failed to break through a rather organized defense of Sparta. Only at
the 72nd minute Gonzalez successfully hung on from the flank, Alexei
Berezutsky won the fight over the ball and with his head threw the
ball to the far post, where Doumbia was already waiting for it 1:0.
Sparta had to break guard, and the CSKA team immediately took as
advantage of it. Dzagoev, coming to the field contributed to the
severity of CSKA attacks added. At the 84th minute with a penalty
scored Gonzalez, and the same Doumbia made a devastating score, taking
advantage of handoff by Alan Dzagoev 3:0.

Author: Georgiy Saralidze exclusively for VK.