Who Are Zenit St Petersburg?

Who are Zenit

Zenit are THE team in Russia’s northern capital and until the introduction of Gazprom finance in 2005 had won a sum total of one League title (1984) and one Cup (1998-9) since their foundation in 1925. From 2005 on they have won four Leagues, two Cups and the UEFA Cup in 2008-9. They are beloved in St. Petersburg and have a decent following around the rest of Russia.

Form in EL

Zenit’s defensive frailties almost cost them on the opening night in Israel when they fought back from 0-3 down to win 4-3. Second time out they whipped a very poor AZ 5-0 in St. Petersburg. Zenit entered the Europa League with a real chance of winning the competition outright, though there are already doubts in the minds of some followers.

Current League Form

Zenit are top of the League with Spartak Moscow, who will most likely blow up in March. They have scored 24 goals in ten games with Giuliano (6) and Dzyuba (5) second and third in the goalscoring charts. Yet they have conceded the same number of goals as 12^th placed Lokomotiv Moscow (8) and this might yet undermine them. They have beaten Spartak, not without controversy, and had a good win on Sunday away to Ural Ekaterinaburg. Lucescu has them scoring goals but not yet quite as good as the AVB set-up in defence.

Gaz-fuelled development

Always more noticeable for Zenit wass the work being done off the pitch rather than on it. They have had a stellar line up of high end political leaders at the helm. It was at Zenit that Vitali Mutko (only this week moved from Sports Minister to Deputy Prime Minister) cut his teeth before moving to head up the Russian FA. For almost 9 years he fought and struggled to get the club on track and when he moved on in 2003 it was moving in the right direction. Current owner of Sydney FC, David Traktovenko, prepared the ground for Gazprom and Sergey Fursenko to arrive two years later.

Fursenko left to take over the Russian FA and in 2008 current President, Alexander Dyukov took the helm. Under his skilled watch the club has become chief rival to super club CSKA Moscow. Mutko pushed the appointment of the club’s first non-Soviet coach, Vlastimil Petrzela, who began the player development which has Zenit riding high. Zenit’s success has come from very solid marketing, brought to a high point by current Lokomotiv Moscow President Ilya Gerkus. They continue to be the best in Russia and one of the best in Europe in this sphere.

Dick Advocaat arrived in July 2006 and by the time he left in 2009 had delivered a League, UEFA Cup, UEFA Super Cup and Russian Super Cup. He had a stellar cast with Andriy Arshavin, Aleksandr Kerzhakov, Pavel Pogrebnyak and Danny all hot properties. And the Revolution continued. Current Roma coach Luciano Spalletti arrived in December 2009 and won the next two Premier Leagues with a Russian Cup and Super Cup thrown in for good measure. However all was not rosy on the banks of the Neva.

Andre Vilas-Boas arrived to a club which was filled with expensive talent and little motivation. He set out to clean house and in doing so put many noses out of joint. Introducing a tougher, more defensive brand of football he had little use for less energetic characters like Kerzhakov and Arshavin. By alienating them and not getting his message across to the supporters, he was a dead man walking. Despite this he had real success: a League, a Cup and a Super Cup in a season and a half.

Zenit chose carefully for their next head man and brought Mircea Lucescu up from Ukraine. The Romanian is a born winner. He loves attacking football and is building on AVB’s solid defence, though it’s still a work in progress. Despite losing Hulk, he has added wisely with Giuliano, Robert Mak and Ivan Novoseltsev arriving this Summer.

Path to EL Group

Zenit qualified automatically for the Group Stage.

Familiar Faces

Axel Witsel, Javi Garcia, Nicolas Lombaerts. Kerzhakov and Yuri Zhirkov are known to the most detached followers of football. Add in an array of local talent like Artyom “Big Daddy” Dzyuba, Aleksandr Kokorin, Igor Smolnikov and Oleg Shatov and most of the team will be known to football followers.

Dundalk’s chances

Decent. Zenit are still trying to find balance between attack and defence and in Yuri Lodygin have a goalkeeper who is a step behind Gary Rogers in quality and confidence. Dundalk have more chance of a point in Russia than in Tallaght, though they will not be outclassed. If they physically punish Zenit, they will have success.

Zenit Expectations

To win every group game and make the quarter-finals.

Alan Moore is a Dundalk fan based in Moscow. As well as his day job of Global Brand Director for BOSSNA Sports Nutrition, he is a columnist for Russia’s biggest sports site, Championat.com, and has worked in Russian sports for more than a decade.