Three days after Zenit’s big win over Benfica for the Champions League, the Blue-White-Sky blues travelled to frozen Saransk (-12C) to face Mordovia looking to maintain their +8 point lead in the Russian League.
Possession may reached 70%-30% for Zenit, but first actual chance for Villas Boas’ team came twenty minutes before the final whistle; and that says a lot.
Mordovia kept a passive and defensive role throughout the whole game especially after opening the score at the 28′ with Vlasov’s personal effort as he danced through defenders to beat Lodygin and give fans reason to jump from their seats.
Zenit had problems in creativity as Yuri Semin had 10 men around their own box massively defending and trying to double their goals through counter-attacks. Hulk chipped the ball past Kochenkov to see it go wide at the 73′ minute, a fate which Shatov’s shot shared ten minutes later.
Biggest and second to last chance to equalize came again from Shatov as his shot from within Mordovia’s box was instinctively blocked from the keeper who also said no to Hulk’s long-range shot the next minute.
Zenit started playing when it was too late and Mordovia celebrated a huge win with St. Petersburg’s team suffering their second loss in the Russian Premier League.
