Dzyuba’s representative: “Artem showed respect for Zenit, where he spent many years without celebrating a goal”

Akron forward Artem Dzyuba expressed respect for Zenit by not celebrating the goal scored against the blue-white-blues in the 18th round match of the MIR RPL, the player’s representative Leonid Goldman told Match TV.

The meeting took place on Saturday in St. Petersburg and ended with a score of 2:1 in favor of the guests. Dzyuba scored the winning goal in the 40th minute. In the second half, the guests remained in the minority; Kirill Danilin received a second yellow card in the 56th minute.

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“I had a feeling that Artem would score a goal today, I told him about it. When Lokomotiv played Zenit in early December 2023, Artem was also the captain and gave an assist to Tiknizyan. Artem’s matches with the captain’s armband against Zenit are going particularly well. There was a premonition, but the victory was unexpected, probably for everyone. It’s even more valuable. Congratulations to Akron, great guys, heroes, ten of them held on so well. Of course, luck was on Akron’s side, but they deserved it for all the work in the first half of the season.

As for Artem, in the first half his heart skipped a beat when he grabbed his back. I understood that he would not be replaced and, if anything, would even jump on one leg if necessary, since the match was important, and then there would be a pause, there would be time to heal the sores. I’m incredibly happy about his goal, happy and proud. It’s doubly nice that the ball turned out to be the winner. We managed to break away from our competitors in the table. All Akron fans and Artem’s personal fans are in a great mood.

— Why didn’t Artem celebrate the goal?

“We didn’t discuss this point with him.” It seemed to me that he did not celebrate out of respect for Zenit, but the blue-white-blue fans did not behave very respectfully and booed him back. He showed respect to the club where he spent many years, some of the brightest in his career. “Everything is logical,” Goldman told Match TV.

Zenit ranks first in the RPL table with 39 points, Akron (22) is ninth. In the next round, Zenit will play at home with CSKA, Akron will go to visit Paris NN. The meetings will take place in March 2025.

Dzyuba played for Zenit from 2015 to 2022. Together with the St. Petersburg club, he won the Russian Championship and the Russian Super Cup four times, and the National Cup twice.

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