Zenit extended the status – Kommersant

The fifth in a row and the tenth in total the title of the national football champion Zenit secured itself four rounds before the end of the current championship, having beaten the principal rival, Spartak, at home. In this match, the Petersburgers took the lead twice, and the Spartacists twice equalized the score, the second time they were in the minority. The victory – 3:2 – was brought to the national flagship by Ivan Sergeev’s goal, scored in stoppage time.

Zenit came close to what once seemed almost eternal, given at some point the level of competition in Russian football sharply increased, the record of their Sunday opponent, which was set just before the start of this rise. From 1996 to 2001, the then-dominant Spartak won six league titles in a row. Zenith already has five of them. He won the fifth, retaining only the remnants of the squad that he had when the series started: only three people who played for St. Petersburg in the spring of 2019, Daler Kuzyaev, Vilmar Barrios, and Mikhail Kerzhakov , at that time – the reserve goalkeeper.

But something of half a dozen Zenit triumphs, of course, unites, in addition to the names of these players, and Sergei Semak, who is still coaching the team. All of them are involved, strictly speaking, on the same thing. First of all, on the ability to competently manage the resources and opportunities that the club received, solid by Russian standards, on a strategy as solid as resources, without shying from side to side, which resulted in exceptional stability in each championship season. The current one in this regard was extremely revealing. In it, all the competitors of Zenit experienced good and bad periods. “Spartak” was gorgeous in the fall and faded, twitching in the spring. CSKA, on the contrary, only really flourished in the spring. “Rostov” missed a bunch of points in recent weeks. And only “Zenith” avoided any shaking. In the championship, he did not have a single segment when he lost points in at least two matches next to him on his calendar. And the phenomenal stability that never disappears, as usual, in fact, killed the “golden race”. It has already become a tradition for Zenit to secure the title ahead of time, and in 2023 he saved it by creating an impenetrable margin of safety four rounds before the end of the championship in a meeting, perhaps with the most uncomfortable opponent for himself.

For about ten minutes in this match, Spartak demonstrated its readiness to prevent the Zenit celebration at any cost.

He did not hesitate to try on the clothes that, when meeting with him, the vast majority of Russian clubs put on. He clearly preferred destruction to creation, and it was an understandable choice. And it seemed to be absolutely the right choice, because the Zenit possession did not bring any benefit to the owners.

And then out of the blue, an emergency happened. Alexis Duarte gave a pass to goalkeeper Alexander Selikhov, and before that appeared Claudinho. The Spartak goalkeeper had a lot of options on how to safely dispose of the ball. He kicked it with all his might right in the leg of the Brazilian, and a second later watched in horror as he rolled into the net. A terrible mistake. Such that, given the status of the match, can crash into the memory for life.

Spartak reacted very well to this, of course, a misfortune not included in his plan. He rebuilt, slightly shifted the emphasis towards aggression, and it turned out that the Zenit, which is under pressure, can tremble itself. The hosts almost conceded after a corner, but soon ran into trouble anyway. Submission of Anton Zinkovsky flew into the Zenit penalty area, and there Quincy Promes rushed to the front line for a discount. He was in a rather difficult position, but he managed to execute a perfect – soft, accurate – pass to the center, and there was no one in the center except Promes’ partner Balde Keita.

Spartak probably believed that he deserved a decent result at the end of the first half. Strictly speaking, he played no worse than Zenit in terms of pace, and in terms of compactness, and in terms of tenacity. But a strange eclipse failed him again. This time – not so much Selikhov, because a rather simple Zenit wall led to a goal on a section of the field saturated to the eyeballs with players, and also a rebound after a really weak shot from Andrey Mostovoy.

Mostovoy, it seems, was almost crying with happiness when he saw that he had brought his team forward. Near the curb, fountains of fireworks soared up, emphasizing the peculiarity of the game, the proximity of the hosts to the title. And near his bench, Spartak’s mentor Guillermo Abascal rushed like a wounded tiger, demanding from the referee Pavel Kukuyan to see, in his opinion, the anti-aircraft violation that took place a little earlier than Mostovoy’s blow. Kukuyan remained imperturbable.

The break changed a lot. He added a lot of rationality to the game, or rather dryness.

From the feeling that Zenit was completely satisfied with such a style, that for the sake of a great goal he was not averse to sacrificing beauty, there was nowhere to go. As, by the way, from the feeling that such a style does not suit Spartak at all, that he is trying by all means to break the rhythm and the Zenit scheme slightly corrected towards increasing density in the middle line. But something didn’t stick with him. And when not glued, it often causes breakdowns.

Duarte’s nerves failed. At the sideline, in a situation that certainly did not hint at imminent danger, he drove into Malcolm’s legs in a tackle so openly that one might think that the Spartak player did not even dream of getting to the ball, but simply wanted to annoy the opponent properly. VAR could not turn on here. And turning on, he convinced Kukuyan that he had to take the side of Zenit. Duarte earned a removal.

And it seems that after that, Zenit was supposed to slowly begin to celebrate the next championship. But no, it was too early to celebrate. Spartak, which remained in the minority, suddenly nevertheless caught luck in the form of a sloppy game in its own penalty area against Christopher Martins Dmitry Chistyakov. VAR started up again, and Kukuyan, after watching the replay, now pointed to the penalty mark. Quincy Promes beat the penalty and executed it convincingly.

Everything went to the fact that the celebrations of the Zenit triumph would have to be postponed. The compensated time was already passing, when almost 50,000th audience of the Zenith stadium exploded with happiness – huge by the standards of the “Fan ID era” – audience.

This episode was a hymn to the insight of Sergei Semak. In the end, he went for broke, throwing two forwards into the battle at the same time – Gustavo Mantua and Ivan Sergeev. Mantua continued the attack, which was slowly maturing on the right flank, with a pass into the penalty area, and Sergeev completed it, unstuck from Roman Zobnin, who did not follow the attacker. There are also more spectacular “golden” goals. But the players always behave the same after any – arranging a boyish pile-small.

In the next four rounds of the Russian championship, Zenit will have the opportunity to enjoy its status, which is still insanely hard to imagine slipping away from it in the near future. “Spartak” in them will have a fierce fight for medals. After this loss, he fell out of the top three. Spartak is two points ahead of CSKA, which beat Orenburg 2:1, and Rostov is a point ahead.

Alexey Dospekhov