On July 9, Zenit and Spartak will meet in the match for the Super Cup. More than 60,000 fans will watch the main event of July from the stands of the Gazprom Arena, however, the confrontation between these clubs also knows meetings without spectators at all.

Valery Karpin is on the coaching bench of Spartak, on the other side of his counterpart from Zenit Luciano Spalletti, there are 22 maximally charged players on the field, and not a soul in the stands of the RZD Arena. This is what the main poster of the 16th round of the Russian championship of the 2013/14 season looked like.

The fact is that at the cup match “Shinnik” – “Spartak” at the end of October 2013, the fans of both teams rioted, so the RFU punished them with matches without spectators. Thus, Muscovites received guests from the northern capital in complete silence. It is a pity that no one saw this game live, because the teams gave a super match.

Photo: © RIA Novosti / Grigory Sysoev

Karpin permutations, which played excellently

The opponents came out to play with the same formation (4-5-1), but in a different state. Zenit lost Roman Shirokov due to illness, and Danny’s attack engine was injured in the game against Porto. However, a 1-1 draw in the Champions League did not look as sad as Spartak’s 1-3 loss to Lokomotiv. Therefore, Karpin put Sergei Pesyakov on the bench, entrusting a place at the gate to Artem Rebrov. He defended to zero in the Cup with Shinnik, but practically did not play in the RPL.

The beginning of the match for the “red-whites” was frankly a failure. Already in the 6th minute, Zenit opened the defense of the hosts in three passes, and Alexander Kerzhakov, who went one on one, rolled the ball under Rebrov’s arm. By the 20th minute, Kerzhakov could have scored a brace, but the Hulk intervened. Guests earned a penalty, and Alexander immediately took the ball. But the eminent Brazilian began to argue and eventually defended the right to take the kick, although before that Hulk had not scored from the point of Porto and Ural. Here he also failed – the legionnaire struck disgustingly, and Rebrov guessed the direction of the blow. Artem marked the beginning of a powerful return of Spartak to the game.

Photo: © RIA Novosti / Ilya Pitalev

The unstoppable Movsisyan and the two-core Glushakov

In the 33rd minute, Yura Movsisyan and Denis Glushakov equalized the score by creating a miracle goal. The Russian player completed a cross from a corner to the goalkeeper’s near corner, while the Armenian headed the ball into the far post at an acute angle. From her shell and darted into the gate. Before the end of the first half, Movsisyan managed to get a double, this time Domenico Criscito came to the aid of Yura – the Italian played leisurely in the penalty area and sent the ball exactly to the opponent’s foot, and the forward drove it into the goal.

But the Armenian did not calm down on this either. Already at the beginning of the second half, he made a hat-trick – Tino Costa hit hard wide of the goal, but Movsisyan was just at that point. The forward gracefully turned the mistake into a goal – 3:1. Although, maybe the Argentine gave such a pass on purpose.

Zenit managed to return to the game, Hulk nevertheless said his big word. The Brazilian pierced the net of Rebrov’s goal with a powerful free-kick. There were still 25 minutes left until the end of the match, but the intrigue died earlier, because the two-wire Glushakov gave a solo pass, circled three and sent the ball into the goal. It even became loud at the empty stadium, because journalists applauded Denis. 4:2 – “Spartak” very beautifully beats “Zenith” at the “RZD Arena”.

– To be honest, I don’t remember the last time I scored like that, beating several opponents. Probably, when I was still playing for the Irkutsk Zvezda (in 2007 – approx. Sportbox.ru), there I also scored the first goal in the First League, circling half the enemy team, ”Glushakov shared.

Some participants of that match are now in the structure of their clubs. Spartak has technical coordinator Artem Rebrov, Zenit has Alexander Anyukov and Anatoly Timoshchuk, who work at the headquarters of the main team, and Andrey Arshavin and Konstantin Zyryanov are involved in youth. So there are enough intrigues before the battle for the Super Bowl, and the match is waiting for us no less interesting than nine years ago in Moscow.

OLIMPBET – Russian Super Cup. Zenit — Spartak