Will teams be able to interrupt a drawn series
The confrontation between CSKA and Zenit is one of the most spectacular and dramatic in the Russian Premier League, but recently this action has been without heads. In the previous three meetings, the teams struck each other with 74 hits, but none of them resulted in a goal being scored. Thus, the “dry” series in fights between the grandees of the RPL already amounts to 315 minutes without taking into account the compensated time.
It is noteworthy that the last time the teams managed to print the gates of each other in the already distant August 2016. The teams were then led by Leonid Slutsky and Mircea Lucescu, and on the field there were players such as Axel Witsel and Zoran Tosic. That meeting ended with a score of 1: 1, while Roman Eremenko and Yury Zhirkov scored goals.
Will Zenit extend the unbeaten run?
Despite the abundance of draw results and poor performance, St. Petersburgers continue to have a serious advantage in confrontation with the army team. Over the past ten meetings, “Zenit” has never lost to CSKA, while winning five victories. The largest of them was recorded in the final of the Russian Cup, which ended with the score 4: 1 in favor of the blue-white-blue. Hulk scored a double, Alexander Kokorin and Artur Yusupov scored another goal.
By the way, despite the success in the Cup, Zenit can hardly call that season successful. In the national championship, wards Andre Villas-Boasha took only third place, passing ahead not only the champion of CSKA, but also Rostov.
The last victory of Muscovites dates back to March 15, 2014. In the 21st round of the Russian Football Championship, the wards of Leonid Slutsky barely beat one of their main rivals. The author of the only goal scored was Bulgarian Georgiy Milanov, who left CSKA after the end of last season.
Can CSKA overcome the crisis?
When Viktor Goncharenko's charges sensationally beat Real Madrid in early October, everyone was confident that CSKA overcame the period of its formation in record time and will only stamp victories. However, one failure was replaced by another, and in a month the red-blues were able to win only one victory in the official match, and then over the wrecking “Anji”. In addition, they twice beat Roma in the Champions League, lost to Lokomotiv and Krasnodar in the RPL, lost points with Dynamo, and also stopped playing in the Russian Cup.
In addition, CSKA had obvious problems when playing in the attack. If in the period from the fourth to the eighth round, the army team shot 11 goals, in the next five meetings they limited themselves to four. At the same time, only two leaders of the team, Fedor Chalov and Nikola Vlašić, became their authors. RPL silver medalists need to start helping their main goalscorers in the attack, otherwise in the future this problem may become much more serious. Fortunately, the Icelander Arnor Sigurdsson scored his debut ball for the club in the last match with Roma.
Will Semak win the first victory over CSKA
If Zenit feels very comfortable in a full-time confrontation with CSKA, then their new mentor cannot yet boast of such. When he was a coach of Ufa, Semak was never able to beat his former club: one meeting ended in a draw and three - in favor of the army team. In this case, the wards of the current steering blue-white-blue and could not print the gates of Igor Akinfeev (0: 4 on scored balls).
Remarkable is the fact that it was Semak who led Zenit in March 2014, when Muscovites won their last victory over St. Petersburgers. The specialist took the position of acting head coach after the dismissal of Luciano Spalletti and only nine days later transferred the powers to Andre Villas-Boas. In addition, during this modest period of time, he managed not only to concede to CSKA, but also to beat Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
How CSKA cope with injuries
For the army club this season is becoming extremely difficult not only because of the outcome of a number of leaders who have decided to end their sports career, but also because of the frequent injuries of active players. Back in the spring, the army team lost their main defender Viktor Vasin, and right before the World Cup, the promising wagon Konstantin Kuchayev was seriously injured.
On the eve of the match with Zenit, the Moscow club lost two more players. In the match against Roma, Mario Fernandez suffered a concussion, and Ivan Oblyakov broke his brush, thus forcing Viktor Goncharenko to redraw both the defensive and the middle lines. But if in the midfield there are performers capable of replacing the ex-player “Ufa”, then CSKA does not have an equivalent replacement for the Brazilian Russian. It is possible that the Belarusian specialist will be forced to switch to a scheme with two central defenders and send Kirill Nababkin to the right edge.
Will appear on the field Dziuba
Zenit also could not avoid personnel problems before the most important match of the championship. As the head coach of the team, Sergei Semak, said after the Europa League match with Bordeaux, the leader of the St. Petersburg attack, Artem Dzyuba, may miss the game with CSKA. Initially it was assumed that the coaching staff provided the striker with a rest in the European Cup match, but later it became known about the injury of the athlete.
The absence of Dziuba on the field will be a strong blow to the "Zenith". Of course, the main candidate for his replacement would be Alexander Kokorin, but he is currently being held in the SIZO No. 2 of the city of Moscow and is being held on charges of hooliganism and beatings. In his absence, the main hope of the guests is Anton Zabolotny, who continues to experience serious performance problems. This season, he has never distinguished himself in the RPL, but he scored twice in the Europa League.
Will there be a full house at the match CSKA - Zenit?
This season, the army team decided on an interesting course and moved their matches in the Champions League to the Luzhniki stadium. It was argued by the fact that VEB Arena, which has a capacity of 30 thousand spectators, will not be able to accept everyone who wants to visit the confrontation with Real and Roma. As a result, the red and blue were not mistaken: both fights had a huge stir, and 71 thousand people visited the winners of the last three Champions League draws.
In light of this, it is interesting whether the army team will be able to fill the stands of their own stadium at the match with Zenit. This season, the most visited home game of CSKA in the RPL was the derby with Spartak, which was visited by 29.3 thousand fans. Other results were noticeably lower. So, more than 20 thousand at the VEB Arena were collected only once - at a game with Lokomotiv (22 thousand).