Glushenkov Extends His Great Series! How Dynamo Almost Stopped Zenit

In the match of the RPL leaders, Zenit defeated Dynamo thanks to a goal by Maxim Glushenkov and became the sole leader of the championship. Only after this hard-fought victory will no one talk about the total superiority of the current champions over their opponents.
At the start of the season, Zenit's play was impressive. In five matches in various tournaments, Sergei Semak's team scored an average of four goals, and only Krasnodar managed to score with Evgeniy Latyshonok in the Super Cup. The play of Zenit's new recruit Glushenkov was also personally impressive (only the head coach of the Russian national team Valery Karpin would disagree with this opinion).

Almost everyone rushed to give Zenit its seventh consecutive gold medal ahead of schedule. Especially since the club's 100th anniversary will be celebrated in May next year. In the euphoria that has gripped Russian football, the head coach of Zenit has kept the coolest head.

After the crushing victory over Rostov, Semak, answering a question, emphasized that anything can happen in any match. Last season, Zenit often missed victories and even draws in the last minutes. And the victory itself, whether by a large score or by a minimal one, brings the same three points. Almost word for word, the head coach of Zenit repeated the same idea against the backdrop of the Bronze Horseman.

Before the match with Dynamo, Zenit cancelled the traditional open training session and instead held a spectacular PR event in the historical center of St. Petersburg against the backdrop of St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Senate and the Bronze Horseman. There were even more people than attend the RPL calendar matches in Khimki.
Security guards did not prevent those who wanted to take a selfie with Glushenkov or Claudino from breaking through to the improvised field. The footballers, without stopping to sign autographs, convinced journalists that they were in complete solidarity with the head coach. There was no euphoria associated with the winning start series.

During the event, Semak also spoke about the Glushenkov phenomenon. «Maxim is currently scoring spectacular goals,» Semak emphasized. «We are happy about this, but the main thing is for the team to win. Who will score and how many is a secondary question. Glushenkov himself constantly emphasizes this.»

Rostov failed to test the leader in Zenit's first home RPL match. Although Karpin was generally satisfied with the content of his team's game after 0:5. In the fourth round, Dynamo came to St. Petersburg, which last season had a chance to win the championship until the last match, and started the current season with three wins.

Not as spectacular as Zenit's, but they also earned 9 points. At the same time, Dynamo was strengthened only by goalkeeper Andrei Lunev, who, to put it mildly, said goodbye to the St. Petersburg team not in the way its management and fans would have liked. And he ended up in Moscow via Leverkusen and Baku.

In the opening matches, Dynamo head coach Marcel Licka could not use the main players who were involved in the Copa America. Paraguayan Fabian Balbuena was also at the Olympics, and Uruguayan Nicolas Marichal took a long time to recover after returning from the national team. As did Jorge Carrascal, who won silver medals as part of the Colombian national team. He made his first appearance in the RPL, coming on as a substitute in the game against Akron. Mexican Luis Chavez also played in the Copa America.

At the start, Dynamo played with a far from optimal lineup, but they got their way. It seems that Semak would have preferred this option to a scattering of goals and the absence of visible problems. In addition, Konstantin Tyukavin, whom many Zenit fans would really like to see at the forefront of their team's attack, justifies his title of bomber. Only Konstantin, whose agent is Alexey Safonov, not Pavel Andreev, does not even consider this option.

Balbuena appeared in the starting lineup of Dynamo with the captain's armband, Marichal and Carrascal remained in reserve. And Semak, who, with the arrival of Glushenkov, had the opportunity to use variability, not paying attention to either the «8 + 3» formula or the whims of the Brazilians, released the same players from the first minutes as in the game with Rostov. The head coach of Dynamo did not follow the advice of experts and the visitors did not even try to deprive Zenit of the ball. Instead, the Muscovites blocked dangerous attack directions.
In the first half, this tactic brought success. There were practically no dangerous moments at Lunev's goal. At the beginning of the second half, the hosts lost Wendel, the main system-forming player of the team. Only Pedro played the role of a cartridge carrier for Glushenkov.
And after the goal was scored, we saw Zenit as it was last season. It could have ended badly, but after the 11-meter penalty by Nicolas Ngamaloe, Latyshonok saved it. As in the «validol-championship» season, in the injury time, the spectators counted the minutes until the final whistle. And after that, you do not agree with Semak, who claimed after the crushing victories: «It is too early to crown Zenit, there is a long distance ahead, during which declines are inevitable»?
Russian Premier League (RPL)August 10, 2024 • starts at 17:30CompletedZenitRussia1 : 0Dynamo MoscowRussia
55‎’‎ • Maxim Glushenkov (Pedrinho)

Dynamo showed how to play on equal terms with Zenit and take points from them. Why didn't it work? As Lichka noted at the post-match press conference, Zenit knows how to give their best in critical moments, and we are just learning this. In two weeks we are expecting Spartak.