“Zenit” against the clubs of Pele and Slutsky: what you need to know about the tournament in Qatar

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organized by the Zenit football club, the winter friendly tournament «Equality Cup» starts in the capital of Qatar, Doha on Thursday. Sports talks about what you need to know about the international start of the current Russian champion.

In addition to the current winner of the Russian Premier League (RPL), Qatar's Al-Duhail, China's Shanghai Shenhua and Brazil's Santos will take part in the tournament, which will be held with the support of Winline. The games will be held from February 1 to 13 at the Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, which seats 11,918 spectators.

Al-Duhail are the current champions of Qatar. The team is led by Christophe Galtier, who became the French champion with Lille (2020/21) and PSG (2022/23). The most expensive football player of the Qatari club is ex-Liverpool and Barcelona midfielder Philippe Coutinho. The Transfermarkt portal values ​​the 31-year-old Brazilian, who is on loan from Aston Villa, at 9 million euros.

Winner of the 2023 Chinese Cup, Shanghai Shenhua became interesting to Russian fans in December, when ex-mentor of the Russian national team and CSKA Leonid Slutsky was appointed to the post of head coach. Shortly before the start of the tournament in Qatar, the new team of the Russian specialist was supposed to play against Al-Nasr from Saudi Arabia, for which Cristiano Ronaldo plays. The meeting was postponed to a later date, as noted in the release, for reasons beyond Al-Nasr's control. Shanghai Shenhua managed to play two friendly matches under Slutsky, but have not yet won a single victory. The games against the Chinese Olympic team and the Changchun Yatai club ended with a score of 1:1.

Zenit's loudest rival by name will be Santos. The home club of Pele and Neymar is in a deep crisis — in December, the black and whites were relegated from the top division of the Brazilian Championship for the first time in their 111-year history. It is not surprising that the team does not have players even close to comparable to forwards of this caliber. At the same time, two football players familiar to the Russian audience play for Santos — ex-Zenit midfielder Juliano and midfielder Pedro Gabriel, on loan from Lokomotiv.

Schedule of matches of the «Equality Cup»

• February 1. «Shanghai Shenhua» — «Al-Duhail» (start — 19:30 Moscow time)
• February 4. «Santos» — «Shanghai Shenhua» (17:00)
• February 5. “Zenith” — “Al-Duhail” (17:00)
• February 8. “Zenith” — “Shanghai Shenhua” (17:00)
• February 9. «Santos» — «Al-Duhail» (16:00)
• February 13. “Zenit” — “Santos” (17:00)

For Zenit, the upcoming tournament will be an important stage in preparation for the second part of the Russian championship season, in which the “blue-white-blue” will continue chasing Krasnodar, which is in first place. Through the upcoming matches, Zenit head coach Sergei Semak will continue to integrate winter newcomers into the team's game — defender Nino, midfielder Ilzat Akhmetov, as well as forwards Pedro and Arthur.

Zenit will play the first official match in 2024 on March 2. In the 19th round of the RPL, the “blue-white-sky blues” in St. Petersburg will meet with Moscow “Spartak”.