In the latest UEFA Champions League action, Zenit St. Petersburg won 3-2 against SL Benfica at Petrovsky stadium, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Russia-c2991
Zenit St. Petersburg midfielder, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/SL-Benfica-c40542.
According to the European Football Association Union, Shirokov (8.3) has surpassed http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296 (7.0). However, the Russian national stands behind the AC Milan striker Zlatan
Ibrahimovic (8.5) in the rankings.
Shirokov has also equalled the record set by Valery Karpin for most goals scored by any Russian player during a single European campaign. Hic rich European form has seen him score 5 goals in 7 outings so far.
Reports in Russia had ruled out Shirokov due to a recurring injury for the crunch European tie. However, he managed to start the match and completed 90 minutes on the pitch against the Eagles.
The former Saturn Moscow Oblast player has praised his team’s effort against a stern European opposition. He revealed that Zenit displayed great character despite the absence of key players.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Vyacheslav-Malafeev-c36502 were all out injured.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Yuri-Zhevnov-c37682 kept the goal in absence of Malafeev and conceded 2 goals.
“We have missed the loss of every player due to injury. Moreover, we lamented the absence of our first choice goalkeeper.” The Russian Cup winner was quoted as saying.
Shirokov went on to praise http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sergei-Semak-c32976, revealing that the former Rubin Kazan player scored a fantastic goal. Semak has now become the oldest Russian player to score a European goal since Oleksandr Horshkov.
Zenit had earlier played http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Porto-c39186 in the group stages of the ongoing European campaign. Shirokov admitted that Benfica are a strong team and compared them with Porto. He added that both the Portuguese outfits like to keep the ball.
Shirokov hailed http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Maksim-Kanunnikov-c23221, revealing that the young Russian striker had a good debut Champions League game and tipped him to score goals for St. Petersburg club.
Tags: