Champions League: Zenit beat Auxerre 1-0 with Aleksandr Kerzhakov heading the victory – Part One
The Champions League qualification match between FC Zenit and AJ Auxerre resulted in a 1-0 victory for Zenit, who were playing at their home in St. Petersburg.
In the match, Aleksandr Kerzhakov scored the winner in the 3rd minute with a perfectly positioned header, and that was all that was needed to seal the victory for the Russian club.
Zenit’s manager Luciano Spalletti has articulated that he is extremely happy with the performance of his team, and hoped that the goal will help Zenit in the match next week.
He stated that as Bomzhi would travel to play the French club in the 2nd leg, therefore, the Russian club has a good chance of winning on the aggregate score.
The match at St. Petersburg was a real tough one, as both teams kept on charging towards each other’s goalposts to score. In the end, Zenit had 5 attempts and Auxerre had 4.
Attempts that were counted as wide were more in number, though, when compared with Zenit’s stats. While Zenit had 5 misfired shots, Auxerre had 8 attempts.
Auxerre also proved to be a much tougher team to encounter as the French club produced their typical game, especially when the heated match was about to result in a 1 goal defeat to them.
Fouls committed by Zenit were 10, while Auxerre were slapped with 13 fouls. Though Auxerre did try a lot to beat the goal difference in the end, now they will have to face the Russian club at Stade de l’Abbe-Deschamps with a 1 goal deficit.
Their manager Jean Fernandez has accepted that it was a tough match; however, it was the home-ground of the Russian club and they had massive support. He was adamant about a comeback in the 2nd leg, though.
He stated that the team will be ready for Zenit in the bout for the 2nd round and will overcome the 1 goal deficit, qualifying for the next stages of the Champions League.
The edge that Zenit has is because of Aleksandr Kerzhakov, who is proving himself as the next big Zenit star from Russia, after Andrei Arshavin joined the English club Arsenal.
It was his header in the 3rd minute that gave the lead in the UEFA Champions League’s qualification stage matches against AJ Auxerre. The 27-year old striker joined Zenit this year from Dynamo Moscow and has acquired 4 goals in 16 matches.
For Moscow, he produced 20 goals in 51 matches, while for his former club Sevilla he had 26 caps in which he netted 8 times. Before that, he resided with his current club Zenit and had scored 64 goals in 156 appearances.
Throughout the match, Auxerre produced a stunning game and were emphatic about an equaliser; nevertheless, they were unsuccessful.
The intermittent attempts by Auxerre were met by the hardened defence of Zenit. Zenit has attained some quality players this summer. The have signed footballers like Bruno Alves and Sergei Semak, who played an essential role in the victory.
In the end, Zenit avoided a narrow defeat, as their defence blocked many efforts from the French club. While some of their strikers got deflected by defenders, Auxerre's greatest moment of misfortune was when one of their attempts struck the goalpost in the 41st minute.
Now Zenit maintain their impressive record of having just two defeats in 27 fixtures of UEFA club matches, and the Petrovsky Stadium once again became the hub of the victory.
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