Zenit suffered their first defeat under Mircea Lucescu, a 4-0 loss/elimination to Anzhi for the Russian Cup, on a game that ended with three red cards (two for Zenit).
Lucescu preferred to leave Axel Witsel on the bench, giving the Belgian a few breaths from the consecutive games.
After half an hour of game play, Gasanov put Anzhi in the driver’s seat until the half time break. Axel was summoned when two teams returned from the break, as Javi Garcia’s injury proved hard enough to prevent him from going on.
Things got worse for St. Petersburg at the 60′ minute, when Kerzhakov was shown the red off for a body-check on the Anzhi forward (firstly a yellow, then a change of mind seconds later). Mak was sacrificed for Lodygin and Zenit had a mountain to climb especially down to ten-men.
Anzhi took full advantage of their numerical superiority and killed Zenit’s hopes in seven minutes with a double from Budkivsky and a 3-0 with another twenty minutes remaining.
Axel tried to fight back with a couple of chances along with Dzuyba but had no luck and Anzhi stroke for a fourth and final time with Berisha at the 80′ minute.
Both teams received a red card after Giuliano’s conflict with Gadzhibekov resulted into the ref showing them the marching orders, with Zenit finishing the game with 9 men.
