“Zenith” went for the Cup from below – Sport – Kommersant
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In the play-offs of the Fonbet Cup of Russia, the first match between the teams of the so-called lower bracket took place, in which the winners of the Way of Regions selection compete with the representatives of the Way of the Russian Premier League, who took third place in the group stage. In Ulyanovsk, the local “Volga”, playing in the first division, took on the St. Petersburg “Zenith” and lost with a score of 0:3.
The very fact that Zenit got into the lower part of the play-off bracket of the Russian Cup, of course, became a loud sensation. The undisputed champion of the country of the last four seasons, who is now confidently going to the fifth title in a row, we recall, in the group round of the cup tournament, he unexpectedly lost not only to Spartak, but also to Krylya Sovetov. As a result, fate, or rather, the drawing of lots, threw the Petersburgers to Ulyanovsk. Yes, at first glance, they got a not so difficult opponent, and Volga still occupies the penultimate, 17th place in the current championship of the first league, but there were nuances that caused the favorite some discomfort and did not guarantee him victory at all.
As you know, Zenit could not use three leading players in the confrontation with Volga – Wilmar Barrios, Malcolm and Rodrigao, who received six matches of disqualification for a mass brawl in a meeting with Spartak in the group stage. The leadership of the St. Petersburg club filed a complaint against such a severe punishment from the control and disciplinary committee of the Russian Football Union to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but a response from Lausanne with a decision on this appeal will be received no earlier than March 3. Moreover, Claudinho, who was given Russian citizenship together with Malcom the day before, did not come to Ulyanovsk either.
“Zenith” was not at all eager to play with “Volga” on its field and tried to transfer the match to its “Gazprom Arena”. Nevertheless, it was not possible to persuade the Volzhans, and this showed that they seriously intend to challenge the leader of domestic football, using an important home factor. In addition, the format in the lower play-off bracket is such that everything is decided in one match and the double elimination system does not work, that is, the loser is completely eliminated from the Russian Cup. And in one game, even very different class of opponents, sometimes anything can happen.
It is clear that even without the absent players, the Petersburgers had a noticeable superiority in the selection of performers. Their head coach Sergei Semak also had very high-quality reserves on the bench. The guests could have opened the scoring in the very first minute, when Chingiz Magomadov took over Andrey Mostovoy’s point-blank shot. But then there were practically no dangerous moments at the gates of Andrei Klimovich. “Zenith” somewhat monotonously looked for approaches to them in a positional attack, while adapting to the lawn. Volga seemed to be defending without any problems and was waiting for some chance in the attack, perhaps hoping to catch on a mistake not the main central defenders of the opponent – Dmitry Chistyakov and Nuraly Alip. However, ahead of the hosts did not stick, but in the 33rd minute the Petersburgers scored a fairly simple goal. Wendel hung in the goalkeeper’s area, and for some reason Zelimkhan Bakaev, who was unattended, calmly sent the ball into the net with his head.
In the second half, Ulyanovsk finally pleased their fans with the first shot on target. They earned a free kick, and Magomadov, despite a decent distance to the goal, checked Mikhail Kerzhakov. Zenit’s goalkeeper was on the alert, and soon Nikita Kirsanov forced him to stab the outfield players for allowing them to shoot freely from the penalty area.
After the break, Volga noticeably increased in activity and even seized the initiative.
Now she had more possession of the ball and was in someone else’s half of the field. But as soon as there was a feeling that variations were still possible in this match, the favorite stopped all the intrigue in the bud. In the 78th minute, Mateo Cassierra closed the cross with his head from a corner, and the hosts realized that further resistance was useless. And in stoppage time, the Colombian helped Ivan Sergeev to score.
“Zenith” won 3:0 and so far has overcome only the first stage of the quarter-final stage of the play-off. Now he has to face one of the quarter-final losers in the Russian Cup upper bracket, which means that the next opponent will be much stronger than Volga.
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