It’s nine years since Zenit were beaten by Sevilla in the quarter-final of the Uefa Cup, but that has not dimmed the lust for revenge.
The Luxembourgois referee Alain Hamer sent off two Zenit players – one of them Andrei Arshavin – and gave Sevilla a penalty as Vlastimil Petrzela’s side lost 4-1 in Spain and even a mention of his name will spark anger among fans and those involved.
“I know that game wasn’t televised in Russia,” said Vladislav Radimov, Zenit’s captain that day and now the manager of their B team. “But you can believe me, in Seville we were destroyed by the referee in a way that couldn’t happen even in the Russian league.”
As Petrzela observed in an interview with Sport-Express shortly after the draw was made, the world has moved on since then. “In 2006 we had a strong team that could have won the tournament,” he said. “Good young brave guys like Arshavin and [Aleksandr] Kerzhakov.
“But the referee decided everything against us: we were literally killed. Of course, now there is no way that the same happens. Nobody will do such things against Gazprom.”
Arshavin and Kerzhakov, both natives of St Petersburg, are back at Zenit after spells abroad – in Kerzhakov’s case, at Sevilla. He scored for them away against Barcelona, but never really settled and left after a season. Both trained with the reserves during the international break and haven’t been part of Andre Villas-Boas’s first team, but they could be given a chance with Hulk and Danny both suspended.
Also out are the two full-backs, Domenico Criscito and Igor Smolnikov, while the regular replacement on the right, Aleksandr Anyukov – like Arshavin, Kerzhakov, Danny and the midfielder Viktor Fayzulin – is a veteran of the 2008 side that won the Uefa Cup.
“We are looking forward to a very hard game against a favourite,” said the midfielder Axel Witsel. “We have to show a strong team performance with Hulk, Danny, Smolnikov and Criscito out, but if we want to win Europa League, we have to beat Sevilla.”
