Andre Villas Boas had to deal with Axel Witsel’s absence (four cards) in midfield against fourth place team Rubin Kazan in Zenit’s third game in one week, while trying to keep his players focused -with 7 matchdays remaining- and win his first title in Russia.
Rubin stroke very early with Nabiullin (4′) sending a clear message that it wasn’t going to be an easy afternoon for St. Petersburg. A couple of great chances from Hulk, Rondon and Danny didn’t bring the equalizer before half time with Kazan dangerously close into scoring another one through counter-attacks.
It was now Zenit’s turn for an early second half goal as Danny beautifully found Smolnikov who was brought down in Kazan’s box; a penalty that Hulk successfully delivered, 1-1 at the 46′ minute.
Zenit now had to take advantage of the momentum and completely turn things around but a mistimed tackle from already booked Criscito, left the Blue White Sky blues down to ten men with another half hour of gameplay remaining.
Even with 10 men, Zenit’s attacks were more of a threat with Danny’s tet-a-tet being the best but the Portuguese was beaten by Ryzhikov who already denied Hulk a second goal minutes earlier.
Nothing changed for the remaining time as the two teams left Petrovsky stadium tied and with a point each while FC Krasnodar cut down the point difference to eight.
Table standings
1 Zenit 55
2 FC Krasnodar 47
3 CSKA Moscow 43
4 Rubin Kazan 40
5 Dinamo Moscow 39
