There are many Zenit players on the team.
Doorman
Giorgi Shelia (Akhmat) – return of the week
Baburin performed – he took two penalties in a row, but twice left the line before the shots. On the third attempt Rostov scored the winning goal, Egor was unlucky. But Shelia survived and won. Here’s how grown-up kids react to mistakes, substitutions during the game and the bond with the double. Akhmat lost the second goalkeeper due to a red card in the last round, Shelia returned to base. Giorgi has scored eight shots against Lokomotiv: he sentenced Compper’s formal assistant to a strange resignation, and passed the guest goalkeeper only on a penalty, which could not happen.
Defenders
Daler Kuzyaev (“Zenith”) – the tour stagecoach
We know that Daler played the right central midfielder, but we will use his versatility in compiling a symbolic team, we will send him on the right flank in defense. Kuzyaev deserved a place here because of his work in the selection, and this right after the injury! He put pressure, he assured Karavaev on the side, he managed to move to the middle of the field. Great game of a tireless football player.
Dejan Lovren (Zenit)
Imagine Zenit failing to get the ball into Maksimenko’s net. For example, Lovren doesn’t score after a set piece. Dozens of approaches, strikes, a couple of saves by the Spartak goalkeeper: the smell of fried lion and tortured Abaskal, but victory. And so it was Lovren’s ball that turned everything upside down and opened the doors to Mostovoy’s trick. In addition, Dejan’s reliable play alongside Rodrigao – a single mistake when Sobolev scored, also helped the champion take three points.
Baktiyor Zaynutdinov (CSKA)
In the match of the “army team”, we choose not the defender who scored the goal – Diveev, but the man who desperately threw himself under the balls. Willian’s arrival means that Nababkin may be on the bench, but the Kazakh midfielder, identified by Fedotov in defense, is unlikely to give the left central defender’s place to Fuchs. Baktiyor is fine, he went out of his way to make sure Akinfeev’s goal in Samara was scored only twice in one match.
Douglas Santos (Zenit) – the stability of the season
We praise Skopintsev, but Dmitry played against Ural and Santos were ahead of everyone in terms of chances created against Spartak. Furthermore, the possibilities invented by Douglas were dangerous. The defender knocked out teammates five times for shots and the whole of Spartak only seven. The Brazilian has taken the ball four times and intercepted six. Phenomenal performance, Santos surpasses the level RPL.
Midfielders
Denis Makarov (Dinamo) – tour goal
And one of the best goals of the season. We rarely see Makarov on the tour team, because Denis didn’t score RPL since December last year. Now he has stopped a series of eighteen games with no precise hits. The home win over Ural was not easy for Dinamo, they created chances: they won 9-1 on shots, but Shunin made a mistake from Bikfalvi. So, without a nice shot in Makarov’s top nine, the favorite could lose two points to the outsider.
Nikolai Kalinsky (Pari NN) – drummer of the week
It was obvious that Kalinsky would join the national tour team in the near future, the midfielder was in uniform. He could have scored from a free-kick, scored seven shots on goal. Ironically, the man who created so many chances and played twice more, only scored from the spot, but twice. You can argue with the first penalty if you know the modern rules, the second is iron. Both times Kalinsky carried out the sentence with great confidence.
Eduard Spertsyan (Krasnodar)
Commentator Genich recounted how Eduard didn’t make it to the Russian national team, and this is a lovely story about qualifying the coaches of the national youth teams. There was no logic in rejecting Spertsyan, after all, no one forced him to be called constantly. Now the train is gone and the director leaves RPL with every strong match. Eduard created chances against Sochi, shot twice on goal and scored the goal, which ultimately became the winner.
Andrey Mostovoy (“Zenith”) – the persistence of the tour
The left wing of St. Petersburg did what they wanted with the defense of Spartak. Andriy has 8 shots on goal in the central game of the weekend. Plus, seven of them are accurate with a winning ball with a nice shot for dessert. Seldom does a person hit someone else’s goal seven times, incredibly many. Spartak failed to catch Mostovoy, his activity being one of the main reasons Zenit scored the second goal in time and won.
come on
Jimmy Marin (Orenburg) – tour location selection
Marin decided it was a shame to lose for a Khimki as it is now. The Costa Rica striker created five chances in a game that his team initially lacked performance. He has four shots. Twice Marin took advantage of his opponents’ mistakes: he was the first to react to Lantatov’s unsuccessful exit, and at the end of the game he closed the cross with an empty net for a successful counterattack. It remains to overcome Glushakov: Jimmy did it.
Olakunle Olusegun (Krasnodar)
The young Nigerian meets this season. Discrete pressure on opponents, a little too much individual play, but Olakunle is learning. From Gelendzhik, through Denmark and Bulgaria, he made it to Krasnodar, and is now a well-deserved grassroots player. The winger scored an important first goal and then defended Krasnodar’s victory: his pass to Spertsyan brought the maximum points. If Eduard is the strongest player on the team, Olusegun is one of the most diligent.
Main coach
Sergej Semak (Zenith)
Storozhuk, Talalaev and Galaktionov worked well, but their opponents also helped them. But Semak in Moscow, where Zenit often played 1: 1, showed who RPL master. The star was better before half-time, even though the implementation failed. It was not significantly worse after rest. As usual, perseverance had an effect, the class had an effect: Lovren and Mostovoy read the scoring attacks better than anyone. But the game “Zenith” set Semak. The questions to the attackers have piled up, but there are no questions to the work of the leaders. The defense misses one and a half times, Promes is closed. Without Claudinho, we have reached the doors of others. Wendel, Barrios and Santos are fine, Kuzyaev is handsome.
Tour density. Five teams chasing Zenit
Fun coincidences can be found in any round, even one so tense: almost everyone won with a goal and Orenburg and Pari NN got their third balls not without gifts from their rivals. On Saturday the hosts won – four wins, Sunday – the guests, and on Monday the away teams tied the score, as Rostov beat Torpedo away in a thriller with an incredible ending. It’s not often that you see an uncompromising tour. Now Zenit is first with 20 points, but CSKA and Krasnodar only three points less. The gap between Dinamo, Rostov and Spartak is only four points: the whole fight for the podium is ahead, even if no one jeopardizes the ambitions of champion of the favorite.
