Baltika played to their strength in this match. Ignashevich had a small rotation, but it did not affect the quality and style of play. The team is well prepared physically, and this helps them to actively press, impose a fight and, if possible, carry out quick counterattacks.

This is exactly what the hosts opposed to Zenit: the plan was kept from beginning to end. Even in the second half, when they were already leading, the Kaliningraders were not going to play on hold. This attitude definitely comes from the coach. Semak made substitutions, but they didn’t help much either. St. Petersburg got stuck in pressure and, except for one hit on the post, really did not create anything.

Of course, the fact that Zenit had an experimental squad made it easier for Baltika. It is at Spartak that the players sit on the bench no worse than at the base – that’s why Abascal suffers. Here, the players of the rotation are still inferior to the players of the starting lineup.

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Usually at Zenit everything rests on the trinity of Barrios-Claudinho-Wendel. This is the brain center that sets the pace, designs the game, controls the ball. They very confidently get out of the pressure – we saw this in the match with Spartak. Here, none of them were on the field from the first minutes – and Baltika simply put pressure on the opponent. They didn’t let them quickly develop attacks, they took the ball away, they drove it into time trouble – in general, they hung on their heels! It was not for nothing that at the end the Brazilians began to get nervous, and Semak was so focused and even baptized. Haven’t seen him this tense in a long time.

Partly it surprises me that Semak decided to play with an outsider in three central defenders. It is also strange that the players of the rotation, which the coach released, were not very eager to prove their worth. They left, believing that they were higher class, but in the end they got burned. For Zenit, this is certainly a blow, although from a tournament point of view, nothing terrible happened. Baltika, on the contrary, should experience an emotional upsurge and approach the meeting with Lokomotiv, the loser in the Cup, in a good mood.

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