UEFA Champions League Match Review: Auxerre versus Zenit St. Petersburg
Auxerre took on Zenit St. Petersburg in the second leg of their play-off qualifier of the UEFA Champions League competition. The first leg of the two legged play-off was held in Russia on Zenit’s home ground therefore the second leg was held in France at the Stade de l'Abbe-Deschamps, which is Auxerre’s home stadium.
The French football club Auxerre lined with a tactical formation of 4-3-3 for the match, in which they needed a win, after losing the first leg of the play-off by a single goal. Auxerre had three strikers in attack, namely Dennis Oliech, Roy Contout and Ireneusz Jelen. In midfield, Pedretti, Kamil Chafni and Delvin N’Digna played for the French club side whereas in defence Pascal Mignot, Jeremey Berthod and Cedric Hengbart and Coulibaly played as the back four. In goal, Auxerre had the experienced Bourgeois.
On the other hand, Zenit approached the match with a 4-5-1 line up with Alexander Kerzhakov as their main target. He was supported by a midfield of five; Danny, Bystrov, Semak, Zyryanov and Shirokov. Zenit’s defence was made up of Bruno Alves and Fernando Meira in central positions while Hubocan and Anyukov adopted their usual wing back berths. In between the goal posts for St. Petersburg was their long standing goalie, Malafeev. Zenit needed at least a draw to qualify for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League.
The match started at a blistering pace for both the teams as within the first ten minutes of the match the tie was leveled on aggregate goals with Auxerre’s defender Hengbart rising above everyone else from a corner kick to head the ball into the back of Zenit St. Petersburg’s net. Hengbart’s header gave his team the lead on the night but it drew that match in an overall perspective keeping in mind the one nil score line from the first leg of the play-off.
Despite the fact that Auxerre took the lead early on in the first half, Zenit dominated the opening twenty minutes of the match in terms of possession but could not create much to materialize their dominance. The first yellow card of the match went to the goal scorer Hengbart for tugging Danny’s shirt in the 21st minute of the match. However, as the half progressed Auxerre started to see more of the ball and therefore the hosts slowed the game down to their preferred steady tempo. The rest of the half passed by in quite an uneventful manner and at the end of the first half the score line was one nil to Auxerre on the night and one all on aggregate goals.
After the start of the second half, Auxerre played like a team possessed and quickly scored their second goal of the night through a corner kick in the 53rd minute of the match. From the ensuing flick on, Jelen volleyed the ball into the back of the Zenit net to give his team two goals to one advantage on aggregate goals. The second yellow card of the match was shown by the referee to Vladimir Bystrov of Zenit St. Petersburg in the 56th minute of the match. Soon after, Sergey Semak also followed his team mate to the referee’s book in the 57th minute of the second half.
At the 65th minute mark of the match, disaster struck for Zenit as their goal keeper Malafeev was shown a red card by the referee for committing a foul outside of his penalty area in an attempt to stop Auxerre’s striker Oliech from scoring. After their first choice goal keeper’s dismissal, St. Petersburg substituted their second choice goal keeper Yuri Zhenov, from the bench in place of Vladimir Bystrov in the 67th minute of the match.
In the 80th minute, Zenit were dealt another blow as their defender Hubocan was shown his second yellow card of the night which automatically translated into a red card and therefore a sending off. This meant that the Russians had to play the rest of the match with nine men against Auxerre’s eleven. After the Russian giants went to nine men against eleven, it was never a contest as at the final whistle the score line was two goals to one on aggregate and as a result Auxerre qualified for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League 2010-2011.
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