Did the judges bury Zenit: Claudinho’s canceled goal and Markov’s late penalty brought Fakel a draw with Semak’s team

“Fakel” and “Zenit” played the sixth match of the 27th round of the Russian Championship. The St. Petersburg team had a chance to create a three-point lead in the standings over Krasnodar and Dynamo.

Game protocol

Krasnodar lost to Akhmat, Dynamo beat Sochi – and the situation in the top three of the table became confused. The three teams now have an equal number of points. What indicators to look at, what not to look at… Zenit was officially left in intermediate first place – according to the intricate regulations. But in the event of a draw or victory of the St. Petersburg team in Voronezh, all questions about who the leader was disappeared until the next round.

Zenit approached the reporting match against the backdrop of a three-match winless streak. First, defeats in the championship from Rubin and Dynamo, then a draw in the Cup with CSKA. “Fakel” had a longer unbeaten streak, lasting six matches. How they burned the “flammable” Spartak on the road – as if they were afraid of their agility. There was a goalless draw with Orenburg, defeats against CSKA, Rostov, Krasnodar and Krylya Sovetov, followed by another goalless draw with Sochi.

At Fisht, the Fakel team was already led by Cherevchenko. In Voronezh they rushed to sign a new contract with Tashuev – even the old one had to be terminated. Cherevchenko has no time to build up, he must give results here and immediately. Just a little bit and you can be relegated to the First League, even directly. Well, Zenit is having a tense fight at the opposite pole of the standings. The St. Petersburg club expressed confidence in Semak – they publicly said that a new contract had been agreed with him. But this is not a guarantee yet…

“Fakel” started the match well, if you look at it from the point of view of destruction. The Voronezh team settled into positional defense – nothing else was expected of them in the initial period. Well, okay, one could have predicted the hosts’ initial onslaught. However, it did not happen. Zenit also did not rush forward headlong. Everyone is already accustomed to the fact that the “blue-white-sky blues” turn on the academic mode and do not tear apart their rivals, so there is nothing surprising.

The first dangerous blow came in the 32nd minute. “Fakel” had a foray forward – a corner and more. Akbashev took a twist from afar, and the ball whistled slightly over the crossbar. The teams could easily have gotten close to the break with the score zero on both sides, but Zenit decided to show their class. Cassierra passed low to Claudinho, who crossed to the left post, and Douglas Santos hit the target with a fish, peeling off Masterny, whom Cherevchenko replaced during the break (0:1).

The owners were always missing something to spice things up. Appaev managed to head the ball, but Kerzhakov took the ball. By the end of the match, the “Torch” had dried up, and the Zenit team, on the contrary, perked up. Cassierra and Wendel missed opportunities to score more for the visitors. Claudinho curled the ball into the right corner from the penalty area, but the goal was canceled after VAR due to Wendel being offside, which influenced the episode. Alexey Sukhoi watched the video screening himself. It turns out that Claudinho received a yellow card in vain – for taking off his T-shirt while celebrating a missed goal. 0:1 left…

“Fakel” found the strength to make a pile-on, and the ball hit Alip’s hand in the visitors’ penalty area. Sukhoi ran again to watch the replay – and pointed to the point. Zenit graduate Markov converted the penalty when the stopwatch had already crossed 100 minutes. A shot into the lower left corner – and Kerzhakov falls into the other corner (1:1). Two referee decisions are not in favor of Zenit in the endgame of the match – and the St. Petersburg team single-handedly leads the standings. But they are not ahead of Dynamo and Krasnodar by three points, but by only one.

Kirill Ivantsov