Last night, Zenit St. Petersburg put in yet another unbelievable performance against another top European club. They beat Rangers 2-0 in the UEFA Cup Final. In doing so, they added Rangers to a long list of top clubs that they have brushed aside with immense ease.
Their journey to glory began in the UEFA Cup first round, where they faced Standard Liege of Belgium. Liege are a little known team, but are often considered a team that can beat some of the best in Europe.
Zenit won the first and home leg 3-0, and the away leg they drew 1-1. The performance in the first leg surprised many in Belgium, as Liege were considered favourites.
They moved onto the Group Stage, where they were drawn with Everton, Nuremberg, AZ, and Larissa. They battled to a tough 1-1 draw with AZ in their first group game, and defeated Larissa 3-2 away from home in another hard fought tie.
Their final group game was at Goodison Park where they would face Everton. They battled hard, but eventually fell to a 1-0 defeat.
They qualified in third place, and advanced to the round of 32. They faced Spartak Moscow, their fellow Russian team.
Although Zenit had won the Russian League the previous season, Spartak were considered strong favourites. Zenit won the first leg 1-0, but lost the second 2-1. Zenit advanced due to the away goal rule.
They next faced Marseille. The French team won the first leg 3-1, and Zenit would have to produce their greatest performance to date to overcome one of the favourites. They did, they won 2-0 and went through yet again by the away goal rule.
They would then face Bayer Leverkusen, a team that had been in the Champions League final a few years earlier, beating Manchester United in the semifinals. Bayer were new joint-favourites after the shock exit of Marseille. Zenit would have to produce an astonishing performance to get past Bayer.
They shocked the German team by destroying them 4-1 in the first leg, a result that sent shock waves around Europe. Zenit could be a force in European competitions. They cruised through to the next stage, even settling for a 1-0 defeat in the second leg.
They would come up against Bayern Munich. Bayern were the favourites to win, and were predicted to breeze past Zenit. Zenit held out for a tough 1-1 draw in the first leg, and knew it would take another special performance to go through.
They did it again. They thrashed Bayern 4-0 in the second leg to go through to the Final, where they would face Rangers.
Rangers were now favourites to win. Surely Zenit couldn't beat another favourite?
Well, last night they did.
They cemented their place as a force to be reckoned with. They will launch their assault on the Champion League next season, and with the immense financial backing, quality manager in Dick Advocaat, and top class players at the ready, what are the odds of Zenit producing more shocks next year?
I believe they could be the new superpower in football. I have rarely seen teams that can systematically pick a team apart, and learn everything about them until they can pounce, and leave them for dead.
Next season, if they get a good draw, watch out. They will come back to haunt anyone who says they are useless.
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4 months ago
Agreed they had a great season,but one trophy dosent overhaul a mediocre team to a powerhouse.
from 4 months ago
i don't think you can call them mediocre. They now won uefa cup, russian league and russian super cup in one year.
4 months ago
Whether or not they continue in this vein of success, their racist policies are a moral scar on the whole club
from 4 months ago
it is disppointing that their fans have racist tendencies, but uefa have said they know who the racists are, and will be waiting for them at the turnstiles. hopefully we'll see an end to it soon.
4 months ago
Got to agree with Kiran here.. they are in no way a super power.. or even close to one. They're a solid, well organised team. Agreed, they did well in the UEFA Cup, but I think their real test will be in the Champions League.. and as Sevilla found out this season, the step up is fairly steep..
I had loads of fun watching Zenit beat Bayern 4-0.. but I honestly believe that was a really bad "off day" for Bayern.
from 4 months ago
Ryan - I'm not too sure whether they have racist "policies".. they do have a considerable amount of racist fans - which is quite disgraceful.. but I doubt if that stems from the preference of their owners, Gazprom or their manager, Advocaat. This thing about not signing coloured players is not exactly a policy, it is something which is forced upon them by their fans.
If you want an example of policies in football - Athletic Bilbao sign only those Spanish players who are from the Basque region in Spain.. and Rangers had this unwritten "policy" of signing non-Catholic players till the 1980s. Those are endorsed by the owners of the teams. I'm sure that Zenit's attitude will change in time.
from 4 months ago
dynamo kiev was supposed to be next superpower when they reached the UCL semis ... sevilla won back to back UEFA cups and they wont be in UCL next season;so wait for a few years to see if they are any sort of power.
and they beating bayern 4-0:they had 4 chances and scored off them ... and bayern had more possiesion in the game .. it was not a one way traffic or zenit camping in bayern half as the score may suggest.
from 4 months ago
I do think Zenit could be a superpower, the whole reason why i wrote this article. Kiev could never convince players that they were a big team, but never had the money to tempt anyone. it was one way traffic against munich, and zenit had more than 4 chances.
4 months ago
"another top European club" is stretching things when talking about Rangers i think. Bayern Munich are the only top European club that Zenit have beaten. Agreed they did it in style. Well done to them though, Leverkusen, Rangers, Everton and AZ in the groups, they havn't had it easy, be interesting to see how much of a super power they are when they meet Man Utd or Chelsea in Monaco in August.
from 4 months ago
well if rangers aren't a top european club, why they reach a european final? I don't think munich are the only top club, leverkusen, AZ, Marseille and everton are all top clubs in their respective countries, or at least AZ were at the time.
4 months ago
you fairly underrated them. You put them as underdogs in each game and in my mind the only match they should have lost was Bayern Munich,
Marseille are an old team, Leverkuson's Champions League thing was 6 years ago, they bet Spartak in the league already. Favourites in all those games!
They also boast some of Russia's best players, Arshavin is constantly linked with big move to EPL and
Anatoliy Tymoshchuk was bought for bout €15Million and was intsantly made captain. The only shock was beatin Bayern 4-0
from 4 months ago
i think at the time, everyone considered them underdogs, because they little known. I think they were underdogs in most matches.
4 months ago
Gotta agreew with Marc. The only game they went into as underdogs was against Bayern Munich. Rangers are hardly "another European top club". The games against Leverkusen and Marseille I'd say it could have gone either way and Zenit surprised a lot people, NOT by winning the ties but the way they went about doing it. Now, in the final Zenit were clear favourites due to the vast superior playing style they've displayed throughout the tournament compared to Rangers. Rangers' raod to the final was nothing short of ABYSMAL. Zenit's triumph hardly makes them a superpower though...
Zenit's real test will be in the CL, because thats a different ball game all together. The likes of Rangers, Leverkusen and Standard Liege will be replaced with the likes of Chelsea, Inter, Barca and Manchester United.
On a separate note, What a player Arshavin is. The boy left me in AWE last night. Especially in the second half were Rangers just couldnt cope with him...
from 4 months ago
Arshavin is a top player, and a major force for Zenit.
4 months ago
2 more comments on here and we have a team capable of winning the UEFA cup...
Zenit were favourites going into the final because of their semi final result against Bayern.
Rangers, well lets just say their style of football wasn't going to win a major trophy this season, and their fixture congestion must be a problem.
They will win numerous domestic trophies, but thats the Scottish Premiership and cup, smaller than most European leagues out there including the Russian Premier league! Recent history/results prove Russian teams are now far more successful in Europe than Scottish teams!
The race issue surrounding the club is terrible. COMPLETELY THE FANS FAULT THOUGH!!! Knowing your fans were incapable of excepting a black player, it's probably sensible the club don't sign one. It certainly isn't a rule written in stone, it's just deemed best not to sign black players as no player should have to endure racism thrown at him from his own fans!
And finally they have a player called Arse Shaving!!! Whats that about???
from 4 months ago
haha, great comment. had a good laugh at that. The race issue is disgusting, Zenit obviously want to eliminate those fans, but it is sad that every fan shares those views. They should not be present at the current time. Rangers' fixture problem is plain ridiculous. I would have thought that the SFA would help them a wee bit to assist their UEFA Cup journey, not for Rangers, but for Scotland as a whole.
4 months ago
I disagree that its a good policy to not sign black players because of the fans issue. Quite the opposite in fact. In the 1970's and 1980's all of the top English clubs had a problem with racism at grounds (read the brilliant book about John Barnes - 'out of his skin' - if you don't believe me), the main wat this was combated was by those fans having black players in their own team.
When the fans see a black player playing well for their team, they will soon start to accept them, it will take time, and of course in this day and age we see it as a disgrace that we even have to discuss it, but it wasn't so long ago that it was just as big a problem in England. Allowing the fans to carry on their prejudice without challenging it is completely the wrong way to go. The club are as much to blame as the fans, because they just pretend it doesn't exist and exacerbate the problem.
On the subject of Zenit being a new 'superpower', I don't think so. It was only a few years ago that CSKA Moscow won the UEFA in fine style by beating Sporting Lisbon, in Lisbon. CSKA have put up a decent fight in the CL group stages, but they haven't made so much as the knock-out stage yet, so its too early to be calling Zenit a great team. They are a very good team, and in Arshavin they have a potential world star, but lets see how he gets on elsewhere in Europe when he inevitably moves in the summer. Thats the problem for Zenit, this team will probably break up just in time for the CL to start, and they will be back to square one.
from 4 months ago
Good point. Zenit could become the preverbial feeder club for bigger and larger clubs. I would say sod the fans, if we want a black player, we'll have a black player. Accept it.
Thanks everyone for the comments.
4 months ago
Fair comment Simon. I'd like to add i do not condone Zenit for what they do, I'm just looking at why they might do it, what are there reasons, away from them just being blatant racists!
During the 70s and 80s racism within British football was a far greater problem than it is now. It was also a period when black players were becoming more established, a period of transition if you like from having a few to a steady influx of black players into the league. Far more teams back then had racist fans and unfortunetly it came with the territory of a British problem of the time.
Now with the likes of Zenit it's 1 club who have a problem with a majority of fans. I'm not saying any club on this planet doesn't have racists or bigots amongst their support, but they are of a minority and clubs can punish minorities with no major issues. Zenit on the other hand have a majority of fans who appear to not want black players in their team and of course make racist comments and chants towards opposition players. Zenit can lay down a no racism policy and sign black players, but for them it would lead to fans probably turning their back on them.
This is why i lay blame solely at the feet of the fans!!!
After everything thats become apparent of Zenit and their fans recently would any black player really want to move to St. Petersburg? I think not!
UEFA/FIFA should punish all teams where racism is a problem, and not just towards black players. Teams loosing their places in their respective club competitions would soon have fans thinking twice before throwing about their racist remarks!
from 4 months ago
UEFA/FIFA should definitely punish all teams where racism is a problem. This would be an effective measure in preventing racism.
4 months ago
I don't think you can separate Zenit as a fanbase from Russia as a country though. In the UK, we had mass influx of all cultures through immigration, now this brought many problems in the short term, but in the longer term it has meant that as a society we have grown and learned to be less prejudiced. Of course there are still exceptions, but it has been a long process.
I do not know facts, but I suspect that Russia has had no such mass migration onto their shores. As a result, we see them as 'behind the times', but that is only because every society develops at a different rate depending on its circumstances. If you or I lived under Russian conditions, instead of a marginally more enlightened UK (on this issue, not generally speaking as I do not know) it is quite likely that we would exhibit the same prejudice as the Zenit fans do now. I do not mean to remove all individual responsibility from the Zenit fans, but they are merely displaying the mob mentality that all fans do.
I suspect that many other Russian teams have the same problem with race issues, maybe they deal with it better, maybe they are just less high profile, I don't know, but the problem is with the development of Russian society as a whole over a long period of time, not with one football club in a small timeframe.
from 4 months ago
I think plenty of Russian teams have the same problem. It's not high profile in Russia because so many agree with it. I think many people would prefer to be against racism in russia, but are forced to follow the example set by so many.
4 months ago
russians in general don't argee with migration. Their skinheads are among the most feared gans in the world.
4 months ago
I meant fans, not gans lol
4 months ago
You also have to consider St. peterburg's history here. St Petersburg is a hotspot for right wing activism in Russia and its only natural that the idiots will have some football fans amongst them as well. Changing the whole mentlity of the fans is not something that happens overnight. Look at Arsenal FC in the UK. They had the maximum no of BNP support among their ranks in the 70's and 80's. Now , most of their team is black and the fans love the players. But , the process took time. Now Zenit have come into the limelight after winning a Major European trophy and their fans will have to behave if the club has to go forward. Like I said , it is a slow process.
As for the match , Zenit thoroughly outplayed rangers in every department. They played the slick passing game we usually associate with Dutch sides; Maybe it was the dutch coach's influence? They remind me of another European club who did very well this year , Fenerbahce.
Next year could be even more exciting in terms of European football club competitions with hitherto unknown teams coming to the fore and showing they can compete with the best. I am looking forward to it!
from 4 months ago
god point, never really thought of that. Fenerbache did do extremely well, and i hope it's a sign of things to come.
4 months ago
i meant good point in the above comment. jeez.
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