Football’s First Defender

The time has come to September! With the renewed fighting in the major leagues in the European continent, the Russian Super League, which does not have a New Year's Eve league, is gradually coming to an end!

The twenty-fifth round of the Russian Super League!

Zenit St. Petersburg will face their old rival, CSKA Moscow at home!

Zenit, which won another 5 consecutive victories in the league, has completely left behind the second place Sparta Moscow.

There are 6 rounds left in the league, 18 points ahead of the second place! In this focus battle, as long as Zenit is undefeated, it can win the 2007 Russian Super League championship!

Before the game, the championship trophy has been transported to St. Petersburg by officials of the Russian Football Association. As long as Zenit is unbeaten in this game, or the other venue Sparta Moscow cannot win after 2 hours, the championship trophy will be engraved with Zenit’s name !

Today, the entire St. Petersburg is empty, and everyone is watching the live broadcast of the game in front of the TV, in the bar, and even on the square!

The last time Zenit St. Petersburg won the top league championship dates back to 1984, when it won the 1984 Soviet League Championship during the Soviet Union. At that time, St. Petersburg was still called Leningrad!

The last time the two sides played against each other, the points of the top group were still staggered, and the points of several teams were very anxious! But in the 13 rounds after that game, Zenit seemed to be blessed. With 12 wins, it has established a huge advantage in this season's championship in one fell swoop!

Especially in the last three rounds, Sparta Moscow, who was distracted by the UEFA Champions League qualifiers, suffered three rounds of invincibility in the league. The points gap that was originally 11 points was stretched to 18 points in a blink of an eye!

5 consecutive victories in the league, plus 3 consecutive victories in the UEFA Europa League qualifiers! After Yang Feng missed the game and lost to Dynamo Moscow, Zenit regained 8 consecutive victories in all competitions! Update last week It was in the first round of the last qualifying round, and they easily defeated the visiting Belgian giants Standard Liege 3-0, which shows how hot they are!

Zenit, who is in good form, will lose at this home court and miss the chance to win the cup five rounds ahead of schedule? I believe no one will think so! Even if the opponent is the Russian Super League champion last season

The visiting team's poor league record this season is due to their weak away record! CSKA Moscow has only won one of the 11 league away games, and then today, in St. Petersburg, stopped Zenit, which is in hot form, from winning the championship early?

Think of a way, keep the draw as a background board with some face, maybe the visiting team's most realistic idea now!

The game has begun! Although the points gap between the two sides is huge, the away team is the champion team of the previous two seasons after all, and the background is still there. Zenit has to show a 100% attitude to face it!

CSKA Moscow obviously doesn't want to be the backdrop for Zenit winning the home cup!

As soon as the game started, they took the lead in launching a fierce attack on Zenit!

And looking at the positions of Pogrebnyak and Arshavin in the frontcourt, the tactics are still the same as before, moving freely in the frontcourt and harassing the opponent's defense!

Advocaat is not prepared to hold on to a draw for the sake of the championship!

The two sides finally fought against each other this time!

Pogrebnyak!

Be the first to get the kicking opportunity!

When the visiting team failed to attack first, Zenit's first counterattack posed enough threats!

Thanks to Akinfeev's outstanding performance, facing Boshen's high-quality long-range shot, he blocked the ball firmly and hugged it!

The most important factor that is unfavorable for CSKA Moscow's away points this season is that there are too many opportunities for counterattacks by the opponent when attacking. The average is 1.5 away goals per game. For a team of this level, It is unacceptable!

The interception strength in the midfield is not enough, and the players in the entire defense line are not fast players who are good at chasing back! This has caused a situation where the opponent's counterattack is accurate!

If it weren't for Akinfeev's outstanding performance, CSKA's performance might be even worse!

………………

The game has progressed so far, facing the back line where Skrtel and Yang Feng cooperate more and more tacitly, the visiting team's offensive opportunities are pitiful!

Except for Zhirkov's long-range shot, which is considered a threat to Malafeyev, it is difficult for the visiting team's pass to penetrate into the penalty area, resulting in a chance to shoot in the penalty area!

The two forwards, Joao and Lowe, were stared at by Skrtel and Yang Feng in the penalty area, especially Joao. After half a season of growth, Yang Feng can deal with this kind of forward who does not have a strong body. , has begun to occupy a great advantage!

This time, CSKA is no longer obsessed with penetrating, but directly chooses to kick the ball directly from the side, but without tactical cooperation, it directly plays long passes from the side, the quality of the pass is worrying!

This ball, Yang Feng directly headed it out!

Petrov, who was about to take the ball outside the penalty area, was tackled by Tymoshchuk! The ball was intercepted!

Zenit's chance to counterattack!

Arshavin, who retreated to the center circle to participate in the defense before, received a pass from Tymoshchuk, immediately started to speed up, and dribbled the ball towards the opponent's half...

The visiting team dragged Ignashevich at the end and chose to move quickly from the left side of the defense zone to the middle!

Just after halftime, Arshavin took a few steps with the ball! Ignashevich rushed out from his side and directly in front of him!

The ball bounced out of bounds!

But Pogrebnyak, there it is!

Because the whole half was a 2-on-2 situation, facing a huge space, Vasily Berezuzski could only choose to keep retreating and prepare for Boshen's breakthrough!

But Boshen, he chose to pass the ball directly!

A long-distance pick pass!

Pass directly to the opponent's big penalty area!

After being intercepted by Ignashevich, Arshavin did not stop in place, but continued to run forward!

Ignashevich, behind him, was waving his hands to signal to the referee that he was offside!

However, Ignashevich must still think that he is a deep-back. In fact, Vasily on the right side of the field, because he has to prevent the space for Boshen to break through, has been constantly retreating and has become the most deep-back central defender. , Arshavin did not fall into the offside trap!

good chance!

A shot in the restricted area!

Ignashevich chased back to the position with all his strength, and directly chose the sliding shovel to block the angle!

but……

Fake action! Arshavin seems to be going to volley the ball straight after it bounces!

But at the last moment, he retracted his rounded legs, stopped the ball directly, and smashed the ball!

Passing past Ignashevich, facing goalkeeper Akinfeev, a one-handed chance at such a close range! Arshavin!

A push shot aimed at the far corner!

The goal is scored! Arshavin! Open the scoring for Zenit! Zenit is one step closer to the Russian Super League champion!

The stadium was boiling, and tens of thousands of spectators in the stadium couldn't wait to sing We are the champions!

In the square outside the stadium, no tickets were bought, and the fans who gathered to watch the big screen were also singing and dancing to celebrate!

In front of their own TV, countless families are also dancing and carnival!

Even the sales of vodka in the bar soared with this goal!

This is a carnival night for St. Petersburg people, and they are getting closer and closer to the championship!

Perfect body control, at the last moment of the shooting action, forcibly changing the range of the body and the angle of the foot, turning the shot into a reverse stop, directly dunking the seasoned Ignashevich !

Arshavin once again used his outstanding performance to lead the team to victory. Oh no, this time, it is to lead the team to the championship trophy!

21 minutes into the game, Zenit, who are playing at home, lead the visiting CSKA Moscow 1-0!

If the visiting team really wants to mess up the field, the next game must have a goal difference of at least 2 goals. In the past few months, Zenit has scored more than 2 goals in the only game, and it is also the only loss. In the game where they lost to Dynamo Moscow and broke the winning streak, look at CSKA, with Yang Feng and Skrtel sitting in the defense at the same time, can they break Zenit by two goals?