CL Preview: Zenit St. Petersburg - Real Madrid

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The champions of Russia will lock horns with the champions of Spain on Tuesday to get Matchweek Two of Europe’s blue ribbon competition underway in an earlier than usual kick-off.

Climbing To The Zenith

Zenit announced themselves in Russian football when they won their first ever league crown in 2007. And it didn’t take them long to herald their arrival in the continent when they stormed past some of Europe’s experienced campaigners to lift the UEFA Cup earlier this year in May and then followed that up by adding the UEFA Supercup to their trophy collection a month ago.

What’s even more impressive is that they are a side who are not afraid to play attractive, attacking football to get results and achieve success. It’s an admirable approach for a team who, prior to their triumphs in Europe, were still very much considered a minnow outside of their own country.

Their coach, Dick Advocaat has instilled a typically Dutch methodology to their game. Defend as one, attack as one, they play a brand of slick, one-touch passing football but they also have the individual brilliance who can single-handedly turn games around.

Zenit are the first Russian team without the word ‘Moscow’ attached to their club name to play in the Champions League group stage. But the Sine-belo-golubye appear slightly out of their depth as they find it difficult competing in two major tournaments.

They are struggling domestically and they look in danger of missing out on European football altogether next season. They currently lie in sixth place in the Rosgosstrakh Russian Championship, a massive 14 points behind runaway leaders, Rubin Kazan, seven away from the runners-up spot – which would give them entry to the next Champions League preliminaries – and two shy of the UEFA Cup qualification zone with just seven rounds to go.

Although they have a game in hand against most of their direct rivals, the distractions of the Champions League would almost certainly cancel out any advantage they may have. But last weekend’s impressive 0-3 win over Lokomotiv Moscow has given them the morale boost they have been looking for to take into the clash against the nine-time European champions.

Two Shades Of White

There’s no secret that Real Madrid are desperate to attain the Holy Grail that is ‘Number 10’. They have failed miserably in recent years despite promise of success but many a fan and pundit believe this could be their season.

One of the signs to back up that claim is that Los Blancos are finally showing that they have two very different dimensions to their game: the side that knows how to attack and play good football – like the one that devoured Sporting Gijón 7-1 – and the side that is full of fighting spirit and a never-say-die attitude, such as the gritty team that pinched a 1-2 win at Real Betis a few days ago.

The victory at the Ruiz de Lopera was their fifth win in succession in all competitions this campaign and while the results continue to fall their way nicely, they are also going from strength to strength performance-wise.

Recent games have demonstrated that coach, Bernd Schuster has mastered the art of altering his tactics, strategy and formation based on the opponents and the circumstances, unlike the one-track Madrid team over the last five years or so that clung to the simple-minded philosophy of out-scoring an opponent.

The Spanish giants will use current European champions, Manchester United as a good case study to illustrate how a team needs to have a multi-faceted game plan to achieve glory. Last season, the Red Devils hardly looked convincing on their travels all competition long but they always did enough to get their desired result. 

And it’s a good thing, too, that Schuster has taken the last few La Liga outings to fine-tune the team’s away game stratagem. The merengues have not won on the road in this competition in almost two years. Their last triumph was in October 2006 when they beat Steaua Bucharest 1-4 and ever since then, they have drawn three and lost three.

Madrid do not have the best record against Russian opposition in Russia either and they will need to implement and execute that game plan swiftly and flawlessly if they are to snap their poor away form against a very ambitious Zenit side.

FORM GUIDE

Zenit St. Petersburg

Sep 27 Lokomotiv Moscow 0-3 Zenit (ROSGOSSTRAKH)

Sep 21 Zenit 1-3 CSKA Moscow FC (ROSGOSSTRAKH)

Sep 17 Juventus 1-0 Zenit (CHAMPIONS LEAGUE)

Sep 13 Terek Groznyi 1-4 Zenit (ROSGOSSTRAKH)

Aug 29 Manchester Utd 1-2 Zenit (UEFA SUPER CUP)

Real Madrid

Sep 27 Real Betis 1-2 Real Madrid (LA LIGA)

Sep 24 Real Madrid 7-1 Sporting Gijón (LA LIGA)

Sep 21 Racing Santander 0-2 Real Madrid (LA LIGA)

Sep 17 Real Madrid 2-0 BATE Borisov (CHAMPIONS LEAGUE)

Sep 14 Real Madrid 4-3 Numancia (LA LIGA)

TEAM NEWS

Zenit St. Petersburg

Coach Advocaat does not have any suspension issues to worry about and he will also welcome back a few important figures. Midfielder Roman Shirokov has recovered from a calf injury and returned to training at the weekend while Turkish forward Fatih Tekke is also back in contention after shrugging off a thigh ailment.

The pair could still be lacking in match fitness while Belgian defender Nicolas Lombaerts is still sidelined with a long term knee problem.

Probable Starting XI (4-3-2-1): Malafeev – Anyukov, Krizanac, Puygrenier, Siri – Zyryanov, Tymoschuk (c) Denisov – Danny, Arshavin - Pogrebnyak

Real Madrid

Pepe and Rubén de la Red were suspended for the opening game against BATE due to sanctions carried over from last season but both will be available again for selection. Fabio Cannavaro should also be reinstated to the team after being rested at the weekend but midfield trio Wesley Sneijder, Fernando Gago and Guti are all still out injured.

Schuster’s biggest headache is to decide who between four key players he has to drop to from the attacking trident. Raúl could be the one to take the sacrifice this time after starting the last four games.

Probable Starting XI (4-3-3): Casillas (c) – Sergio Ramos, Cannavaro, Pepe, Heinze – Van der Vaart, Diarrà, De la Red – Higuaín, Van Nistelrooy, Robben

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Zenit St. Petersburg

No prizes for guessing who the two big key players will be for Zenit. Playmakers Andrei Arshavin and Danny, who will likely feed off the lone striker, are two very dangerous and influential figures and they will be relied on heavily to bring mayhem to the Real Madrid backline.

Real Madrid

The constant unsung hero Mahamadou Diarrà will have the privilege of disrupting the Arshavin-Danny combination. He will be helped by the versatile Rubén de la Red but the youngster will also be in charge of bringing the ball forward and conducting the team’s attacking play from midfield. It’s a massive undertaking for the 23 year old.

PREDICTION

Zenit will know that teams who fight fire with fire against Madrid rarely come out on top. But if they play a speedy counter-attacking style football, which they are quite adept at, their rapid-fire passing could cause the Spanish giants some problems. However, Los Blancos’ newly rediscovered efficiency infront of goal could give them the edge.

It promises to be an entertaining and intriguing battle right up until the final whistle, especially considering how Zenit have a tendency to concede goals in late stages of a game while Madrid have this knack of coming from behind and leaving things late.

Zenit St. Petersburg 2-3 Real Madrid

KS Leong

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