Battle of St. Petersburg That Nobody Won

The first minutes of the game were poor in opportunities but delivered a lot of tackles all over the field. As a result, the referee showed three yellow cards in twelve minutes: one to Roman Shishkin of Lokomotiv and two to Alves and Bukharov of Zenit.

In the 15th minute Zenit were awarded a corner kick that ended up in a goal. The hosts played a long corner, the ball went to Criscito who blasted at the goal. The ball bounced off Dame N’doye’s leg and went straight into the back of the net.

Just a minute later it was Malafeev’s turn to get the ball out of the net. Alexander Samedov played a corner to Dmitry Tarasov, the midfielder nodded on to Maxim Grigoriev and the forward scored, but the referee had flagged an offside a second earlier and the goal was cancelled.

But anyway the teams were level very soon. Denis Glushakov made an astounding long pass from around the centre circle to N’doye, the Senegalese broke away from the defenders and played a stylish lobbed ball over the keeper who had rushed forward.

In the 32nd minute Lokomotiv got outnumbered due to a harsh mistake of the referee. Loko’s defender Vedran Corluka fouled and was ready to get booked but the ref ran to one of his assistants for an advice. After that he suddenly shown the second yellow card to Roman Shishkin who had been nowhere near the place. Anyway, Roman was forced to leave the pitch.

Slaven Bilic immediately brought in the necessary tactic changes. Grigoriev was changed to Reto Ziegler who filled up the left back position, and Andrey Eschenko went to play a right back.

Till the end of the first half Lokomotiv did not allow Zenit to create opportunities.

The second half brought a sudden relief for Lokomotiv. Anyukov harshly slide tackled Tarasov and was shown the second yellow card. Now each team had 10 players on the field.

Like in all recent games, Lokomotiv controlled the midfield. The pair Tarasov-Tigorev cut out many Zenit’s attacks in the central circle.

In the 57th minute Bilic used his second substitution sending Victor Obinna to tear Zenit’s tired defence. The Nigerian instantly created several dangerous moments near Malafeev’s goals. And Maicon, who appeared in the 72nd minute, speeded up Loko’s attack even more.

Both substitutions influenced the game immediately. Maicon made impressive runs down the flank and Obinna managed to see out both defensive and attacking duties. In the 78th minute Lokomotiv managed to create a very dangerous moment: Samedov found himself on the edge of the penalty area, moved to the centre, outfoxed a defender with a fake shot and blasted at the corner but missed just a fraction.

The rest of the game brought a lot of tackles but no real dangerous moments. Loko’s defence supported by Tarasov and Tigorev upfield successfully dismantled all Zenit’s attacks.

The match ended in a draw and Lokomotiv is still ahead of Zenit in the championship race.

Zenit - Lokomotiv 1:1 (1:1)

Goals: Criscito,15 (1:0). N’doye, 26 (1:1).

Zenit: Malafeev, Anyukov, Bruno Alves, Criscito, Lombaerts, Shirokov (Kanunnikov, 89), Zyryanov, Faizulin, Bystrov (Yanbaev, 59), Hulk, Bukharov (Kerzhakov, 46).

Lokomotiv: Kresic, Corluka, Durica, Shishkin, Eschenko, Grigoriev (Ziegler, 36), Glushakov (Obinna, 57), Samedov, Tarasov, Tigorev, N’doye (Maicon, 72).

Yellow cards: Shishkin, 6. Alves, 10. Bukharov, 12. Anyukov, 31. Hulk, 45. Shirokov, 57. Corluka, 89. Tigorev, 90.

Red cards: Shishkin, 32 (second yellow card). Anyukov, 49 (second yellow card).

Referee: Mikhail Vilkov (Nizhniy Novgorod).

St. Petersburg. Petrovsky Stadium. 20 500 spectators.