Europa League – Match Preview: Anderlecht versus Zenit St. Petersburg
In all honestly both Anderlecht and Zenit would be feeling that they should’ve been participants in the UEFA Champions League. Somehow both of teams shot themselves in the foot and as a result here we are in the Europa League,
the opening encounter for the clubs from Belgium and Russia respectively.
Anderlecht’s journey to the group stages of the Europa league was a tumultuous one, after drawing two all with Partizan on their opponents home ground, the Belgium club was sure that they would progress to the next round of the
UEFA Champions League but as luck turned out Cleo bagged a brace for the club from Belgrade and in doing so forced Anderlecht to play their way back into the match.
A match that they eventually lost on penalty kicks to the Austrian giants. Knocked out of the UEFA Champions League into the secondary European tournament of the 2010-2011 season i.e. The Europa League, Anderlecht are now gearing
up to regain their lost European pride. Domestically, Anderlecht have been impervious, untouchable to say the least. They have only conceded a single goal in their opening six matches in the Belgian football league; they have scored over eleven goals themselves.
In all of their total ten matches this season, the Belgian football club has been unbeaten, a record that they will be looking to keep intact as they take on Saint Petersburg. Petersburg on the other hand have quite a story of
their own. Their manager, Luciano Spalletti, who was in charge at Roma only a few seasons ago has got bags of European experience, which will be precious for Zenit’s chances to progress to the next round of the Europa League.
However, they have had a torrid time in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers. St. Petersburg boasted a one nil lead over Auxerre in the UEFA Champions League’s qualification round. In the second leg, they fully expected to dominate
the game but as it turned out, such things are easier said than done. The French side forced Petersburg into mistakes and as a result ended up eventual winners by two goals to nil. It was an embarrassing loss to the French minnows who clearly surprised the
Russians with their outright attacking mind set.
Zenit do have some history in the Europa League, the competition was known as the UEFA Cup only two years ago and back then Zenit were led to the final match of the tournament by their ex-midfielder Andrei Arshavin. Zenit were
victorious in the pen-ultimate match of the competition and also defeated Manchester United in the UEFA Super Cup that followed their victory in the UEFA Cup. In their local league, the Russian Premier League, Zenit are almost done with half of their season
as they have played a total of eighteen games. Eighteen matches after which they lead Kazan at the top of the Russian league table by only six points. Zenit do have two games in hand over Rubin Kazan, games that the Russian giants are expected to win and increase
their advantage to twelve points.
Zenit and Anderlecht are part of a Europa League group which includes the likes of AEK Athens and Hajduk Split. The unknown nature of these sides makes both Zenit and Anderlecht the favourites to make it to the next stage of the
tournament. Anderlecht will be without Roland Juhasz, Savy Schollen and Marcin Wasilewski for their opening Europa league encounter whereas their opponents will have to make do with the absence of Vyacheslav Malafeev and Tomas Hubocan.
Zenit will be favourites to win this match, their fantastic form and given the fact that they are in the middle of their season makes them the favourites to win this match despite being the away team for this tie.
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