Zenit St Petersburg v Rubin Kazan match preview

By: j | August 10th, 2008

This is one the heavyweight battles of the day that will have a profound impact upon the table. Reigning champion Zenit slowly climbs back up the table but they will need to be at their absolute best if they are take points from Rubin Kazan. Tactically this is a superb battle between the free flowing Zenit and the disciplined defensively-minded Rubin Kazan.

Recent Form
Zenit St Petersburg – combined ( 2 W, 2 D, 1 L) (5 GS, 3 GA)
Jul 19 Zenit St Petersburg 2 – 0 Amkar Perm’
Jul 23 Zenit St Petersburg 1 – 1 Lokomotiv Moscow
Jul 26 Dinamo Moscow 1 – 0 Zenit St Petersburg
Jul 30 CSKA Moscow 0 – 0 Zenit St Petersburg
Aug 2 Zenit St Petersburg 2 – 1 FC Moscow

Zenit St Petersburg – away (1 W, 3 D, 1 L) (3 GS, 5 GA)
Apr 19 Saturn Moscow 1 – 1 Zenit St Petersburg
Jul 13 Khimki 1 – 4 Zenit St Petersburg
Jul 16 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 0 – 0 Zenit St Petersburg
Jul 26 Dinamo Moscow 1 – 0 Zenit St Petersburg
Jul 30 CSKA Moscow 0 – 0 Zenit St Petersburg

Rubin Kazan – combined (0 W, 5 D, 0 L) (3 GS, 3 GA)
Jul 5 Samara Kryliya Sovetov 2 – 2 Rubin Kazan
Jul 16 Rubin Kazan 0 – 0 Saturn Moscow
Jul 20 Terek Grozny 0 – 0 Rubin Kazan
Jul 26 Rubin Kazan 0 – 0 CSKA Moscow
Aug 3 Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 1 – 1 Rubin Kazan

Rubin Kazan – home (1 W, 3 D, 1 L) (2 GS, 4 GA)
Apr 20 Rubin Kazan 1 – 0 Amkar Perm’
May 2 Rubin Kazan 0 – 3 Spartak Moscow
May 15 Rubin Kazan 1 – 1 YFK Shinnik Yaroslav
May 16 Rubin Kazan 0 – 0 Saturn Moscow
May 26 Rubin Kazan 0 – 0 CSKA Moscow

Of the many interesting sub-plots to this match is that if Rubin Kazan are to win the title they need to start playing like champions. Their brand of the padlock without a counter ability is of the mid-tables and must take chances if they are going to hoist a trophy at years-end. Last weeks encounter in Vladivostok was a perfect example as they were heading towards their fourth consecutive shutout before Gokdeniz Karadeniz scored late in the match to give them the draw. However with that said and done, I absolutely do not expect them to take any chance against the beautiful attack of Zenit and we could be headed towards a nil draw. Failing that, if they take a counter-attack approach, given that Zenit often over-commits, we could see them in many opportunistic goal-scoring situations and this match could blow wide-open.

Zenit has their own problems, both on and off the pitch. Off the pitch, the squad is sea of rumours perpetuated mostly by the media, particularly those who are taking translations out of context, aren’t aware of the entire situation or acknowledging how player agents are attempting to use the media itself to assist its campaign. The Andrei Arshavin situation alone has been a series of mis-quotes and embellished language translations as well as out and out lies as with Anatoly Tymoschuk situation. While the English speaking media prefers to portray Gazprom’s as a villainous ownership group, I have yet to see anyone mention that offers for Andrei have been heavy back-end deals that are performance based upon his and team performance and beyond the typical one-year transaction date that English clubs abide by. It is unreasonable to expect a club to sell one of the top players of the game but equally provide longer-term financing for it without a guaranteed fair-market price. As of this date a straight offer with a reasonable base-line guarantee has yet to be received.

On the pitch, the club is simply exhausted and doing what it can to put its best foot forward but they long-since passed the point of having anywhere near fresh legs. This weeks crash out of the Russian Cup was inevitable given this and will assist their efforts to climb the table. The played five matches within a remarkably short two week span which is noble to get through and they luckily escaped any major injuries other than extreme fatigue. Zenit will attack with a 4-3-3 using Andrei Arshavin, Fatih Tekke and the extremely creative Alejandro Domínguez up-front. If they are to break down the Kazan padlock, look for it to come from Igor Denisov, Konstantin Zyryanov and their tenacious captain Anatoliy Tymoschuk.

Don’t miss this fascinating match which is set to begin in one hour.