Zenit wanted to make last week’s defeat from Bayer Leverkusen history by keeping (or increasing) the +7 lead in the Russian Premier League, against Terek Grozny.
The evening at snow-ish St. Petersburg started as usual with the Blue White Sky blues attacking and Hulk’s ball-chipping over Terek’s keeper scraping the goalpost at the 6′ minute. Ten minutes later Ailton froze Petrovsky stadium even more by netting in a slight lob over Lodygin; 0-1 early lead to Terek.
Axel Witsel and co kept pressing for a chance to equalize and Shatov provided the biggest one by winning a penalty; Hulk was defeated from the spot as Godzur guessed right, blocked and kept Terek up front to half-time.
Rakhimov’s team took advantage of Zenit’s vulnerability in defence during the second half and with two goals in six minutes (Ailton 54′, Lebedenko 60′) brought frustration to fans; 0-3 to Grozny!
Villas Boas immediately replaced Garcia and Kerzhakov with Rondon and Ryazantsev, refreshing the attack, with the latest duo cooperating and Ryazantsev’s first-deflecting- touch in the game resulted in a goal for Zenit, increasing the chances of a comeback.
Zenit had a blabbering possession for the last 30 minutes but were harmless and unable to save the day against Terek’s outstanding defensive set-up.
CSKA now have the chance to snip the point difference down to 4 points if they beat Dynamo in tomorrow’s derby in Moscow, just before the break as players rejoin their national teams.
