18 May 2010
Russian Cup Final 2010: Zenit Win Amid Ugly Scenes
By Alex Jackson
Que sera, sera, sera! Whatever will be, will be. We’re going to Luzhniki – actually, no. Everyone was off to Rostov in Russia’s deep south instead to witness a football match very nearly break-out amid ugly scenes of violence and long periods of turgidity.
ZENIT ST PETERSBURG 1 – 0 SIBIR NOVOSIBIRSK
Traditionally, Russia’s Cup Final is played at Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium but this year, the honour was bestowed on the city of Rostov – a move to perhaps demonstrate how well the less-well known corners of Russia can handle such events in the light of the country’s 2018 World Cup bid?
The result, however, was far more conformatory with Zenit coming out on top due to their continuing ability to keep clean sheets under new boss Luciano Spalletti (an Italian and miserly defences eh, who’d have thought?).
The team from St Petersburg carved out chance after chance but just could not get the ball into the net via a combination of overplaying, wasteful finishing and some stubborn goalkeeping from Sibir’s Wojciech Kowalewski.
Zenit boss Spaletti commented: “It was a difficult match from the first until the last minute.”
“I am grateful to the players who did everything possible to win. The emotions of victory are always strong, no matter where you grab it.”
In the previous round, St Petersburg had only just managed to overcome a resilient Amkar Perm with a penalty shoot-out after a goalless 120mins.
In that shoot-out, Roman Shirokov had converted one of Zenit’s four successful spot-kicks and it was the same defender who netted the Final’s decisive goal, again from the penalty spot, sending Kowalewski the wrong way, after 60mins.
Sibir had been overwhelming favourites to lose this match and they were totally overwhelmed by a far superior Zenit – though Zenit contrived to do their collective best to maintain the game’s competitiveness through their inability to score. They’d have difficulty finishing there own dinner, etc, etc…
Indeed, Zenit’s fans were, unfortunately, far better at landing their strikes than their team with at least two reporters, Roman Kosarev of Russia Today and Evgeny Nesyn of Komsomolskya Pravda, being assaulted by hooligans amid Zenit’s 3000-strong support.
Such scenes somewhat marred the event itself and Zenit will surely come under close scrutiny by the Russian Football Union as they have already been in trouble on the opening day of the season when 660 fans were detained following a brawl between Zenit and Spartak Moscow supporters.
But in more positive news, the Sibir fans – who’ve been lauded in the press for their unwavering, youthful and well behaved support on a number of occasions thus far – can console themselves of losing their first ever Cup Final in the knowledge that they will represent Russia in the 2010/11 Europa League, as Zenit already secured a Champions League spot last year.
And that means we could see a team in the Russian First Division taking on the likes of illustrious Liverpool or moneybags Man City. Football, eh? Bloody hell!
