“Zenith” in Seville flew out of the Europa League

At the Benito Villamarin stadium in Seville, Zenit St. Petersburg failed to get past the local Betis in 1/16 of the UEFA Europa League. The first match, held in the northern capital, ended with a score of 3:2 in favor of the Spanish team, and therefore the blue-white-blue had to win.

The guests were somewhat surprised by the starting line-up and, above all, by the fact that young Daniil Odoevsky took the place at the gate. The defensive line was made up of Douglas Santos, Dmitry Chistyakov, Vilmar Barrios and Alexei Sutormin. Wendel played the pivot, Daniil Krugovoy and Claudinho were nearby, Yuri Alberta, Malcolm and, of course, Artem Dziuba were in the attack group.

In the first half, the game turned out to be stubborn, quite interesting, but without shots on target at all. Zenit looked no worse, maybe even had more approaches, but the spectators did not see the goals.

In the second minute, the Petersburgers opened the opponent’s gate, but from offside. The Sevillas immediately responded by hitting the post. The hosts took the initiative “at their feet”, escalating tension at the gates of Odoevsky. There were chances and the guests. Almost the best was from Malcolm, who took a free kick right from the penalty line. There were more opportunities, although closer to the final whistle the hosts tried to calm the game and they, in general, succeeded.

Bombardier quality was unexpectedly shown by Chistyakov, who closed the pass of Andrei Mostovoy, who came on as a substitute, but the goal was canceled due to the fact that Alexander Erokhin (also who had just appeared on the field) accidentally stepped on the Andalusian player’s foot. Erokhin himself still almost hit from a lethal position in the last seconds. An offensive draw – 0:0 and 2:3 following the results of two meetings.

However, Russia still has Spartak in the LE.