CSKA Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg met at Kuban arena for the second time in a Russian Cup final after 2001-02 where the Moscow team won the trophy with a 2-0 win.
The 23rd final found Zenit having possession (67%) and Akinfeev flying to his top right corner to prevent Hulk’s first attempt to open the score for St. Petersburg.
After half an hour of game-play, Oleg Shatov was dropped by Fernandez in the box and the ref showed the spot, where the Brazilian converted successfully for the 0-1 to the Blue-White-Sky blues.
Their joy lasted but two minutes as Fernandez made amends for his penalty and with his assist being delivered by Olanare (who got injured during his celebration) things were brought level, 1-1 to half-time.
CSKA gained ground for the second half and was now reaching Kerzhakov more confident but it was Zenit who stroke again. Axel Witsel brilliantly passed to Hulk breaking the offside and the Brazilian seeing Akinfeev going out of his posts, found Kokorin who had no trouble scoring all alone for the 1-2 to Zenit.
As if that wasn’t enough for Moscow, they saw Berezutski being sent off at the 63′ minute after a mistimed tackle on Kokorin in the box. They now had a mountain to climb, especially after Hulk’s second personal goal from the spot, 1-3 and down to ten men.
Zenit was turning the final into a party with Yusupov adding another to St. Petersburg’s triumph and the 1-4 gave CSKA no hope to come back.
Twenty minutes were procedurally and Zenit celebrated their third cup in their history and Axel Witsel his third title with the Russian club.
