Axel Witsel and his team-mates have qualified to the group stage of UEFA Champions League with an aggregate score of 4-0 against Standard De Liege.
Zenit wanted an early goal to make things easier and Shatov, Danny and Witsel repeatedly failed to score at the 8th minute. Rondon’s header didn’t have the same fate and in the only decent chance from both teams for the first half he gave the lead to Zenit after Criscito’s cross and Kawashima’s mistake. Fayzulin raised Liege’s hopes for something better as he was booked for the second time seconds before first half’s whistle, leaving Zenit down to ten for another 45′ minutes.
Rondon was sacrificed, Tymoshchuk was brought in and Lodygin was getting busier showing his reflexes keeping the clean-sheet for the Blue-White-Sky-blues. As Standard was gaining ground and fighting for a goal that would get them back in the qualifying game, Zenit was the one to score after Smolnikov was brought down in the box by Van Damme and Hulk eliminated any chance the Belgians had, 2-0.
The Brazilian was unstoppable and three minutes later starting from midfield, he passed three defenders and with a beautiful finish doubled his personal goals, placing Zenit in the group stage of UEFA Champions League.
The draw takes place in Monaco, France in two days (Thursday 28th August).
