Vyacheslav Malafeev’s impressive display did not benefit the defending Russian Premier League champions in the UEFA Champions League tie as they suffered a defeat
against Malaga
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Bruno-Alves-c8108 had a terrible game:
Many fans will oppose to Luciano Spalletti’s decision to field the Portuguese defender instead of Tomas Hubocan in the heart of Zenit St. Petersburg’s defence.
Alves, who remained the most expensive defender in the Russian Championship for more than a year prior to Yuri Zhirkov’s move to Anzhi Makhachkala, made silly mistakes in the European meeting against the Spanish outfit.
The former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Porto-c39186 player, who recently played in the semi-finals at Euro 2012, made awful clearances in the first-half and made a terrible back pass for which the goalkeeper had to come out of the penalty box.
Failure to dominate the centre of the park:
The St. Petersburg club’s midfielders looked a bit tired and slow in the entire European fixture. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Viktor-Fayzulin-c36130 looked uncomfortable with the ball and looked under severe pressure from the hosts.
Fayzulin, who had a decent start to the Russian championship this term, made some awful touches on the ball and delayed the transmission of the ball on a couple of occasions.
Though Spalletti tried to alter the situation after introducing http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Danny-c10193 Miguel,
against Malaga.
Malaga looked more motivated as compared to Zenit
The St. Petersburg club have been dominating the Russian Premier League table for the past three years. However, they are yet to develop their European credibility. Zenit failed to reach the quarter-finals of the European tournament
last term after suffering a 4-3 defeat against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/SL-Benfica-c40542 on aggregate.
It looks like Spalletti’s men have adopted a habit of losing their first European game in the tournament. Zenit recorded a 2-1 defeat in the opening group stage match of the Champions League against Apoel FC last term.
But despite playing in the European competition for so many years, it looked that they were less motivated as compared to the Spanish outfit.
It’s still too early to judge Hulk
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Hulk-c16436, who joined the Russian outfit from FC Porto during the summer transfer window for reportedly 50 million Euros, made his European debut with his new side against the La Liga outfit on Wednesday.
The Brazilian striker, who started the European meeting alongside http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Aleksandr-Kerzhakov-c4569 up front, failed to convert most of the chances in the second-half including the one which rattled the crossbar.
It looked like the 26-year-old attacker would take a little more time to adapt to the way Spalletti wants them to play.
Zenit were outplayed by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Manuel-c23383 Pellegrini
The La Liga underdogs made significant improvements ever since Pellegrini has joined the helm. The former Real Madrid coach helped the Spanish outfit to secure Champions League’s qualification after finishing 4th last
season.
The Chilean tactician, who has a wealth of European experience in the past during his stay with Los Blancos and Villarreal, outplayed his counterpart, Spalletti, in the corresponding fixture.
Pellegrini made remarkable signings this summer, having signed http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Santi-Cazorla-c32505 to Rubin
Kazak and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Arsenal-c38429 FC respectively.
Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect Bettor.com’s editorial policy
Tags: