The return leg of the Fonbet Russian Cup quarterfinal that was held at Gazprom Arena, ended in a 2:0 win for Zenit.
Marcel Licka made three changes to the starting line-up that played against Akhmat in the previous championship round. Fabian Balbuena returned to the center of defense, while Nicholas Marichal shifted to the right wing. In the absence of the suspended Jorge Carrascal, Diego Laxalt, Luis Chavez, and Daniil Fomin formed a trio in the midfield. Yaroslav Gladyshev established himself on the right wing of the attack this time.
Both sides started using active pressure from the very beginning. In the 6th minute, Dynamo players intercepted the ball on the opponent's half, and Gladyshev struck from outside the penalty box close to the post. Then Konstantin Tyukavin shot from distance, earning a corner kick. After it, Zenit organized their fast attack, resulting in the first shot on target, however, not very dangerous.
But the next attempt led to a goal: Claudinho made a through-ball pass to Mateo Cassierra. The top scorer of the season ran one-on-one with Igor Leshchuk and put his team ahead. Eight minutes later, the hosts doubled their lead. After an aerial duel, the ball bounced to Cassierra, who managed to beat Leshchuk in two attempts – 0:2.
Gradually, the White-Blues came to their senses and began to threaten Denis Adamov's goal. Marichal delivered a nice cross into the penalty area, from where Chavez struck a solid header, but the goalkeeper of the home side was in the right place. Fomin then fired over the crossbar from the penalty line. By the end of the half, Leshchuk kept our team in the game, making great saves after close-range efforts by Wendel and Cassierra.
The Dynamo players started the second half with great desire and pressed the hosts well on their half of the pitch. Tyukavin used his body well against an opponent and struck powerfully from about 25 meters, but he couldn't repeat Chavez' screamer from four days ago. In the next episode, Kostya did a great job assisting to Bitello – the Brazilian was covered at the last moment. Shortly after, Gladyshev took the ball inside the penalty box and shot over the crossbar.
On the 64th minute, the squad of the White-Blues became even more attacking: Dmitry Skopintsev, Eli Dasa, and Fedor Smolov came to the pitch, and Dynamo switched to a formation with two centre-forwards. Tyukavin remained the most active in the attack, receiving the ball well near the opponents' goal and playing it off to his teammates.
Dynamo players continued to put pressure on the hosts' goal, but Zenit organized their dangerous runs occasionally. Douglas Santos found Andrey Mostovoy in the penalty area, the Russian international failed to hit the far corner. Substitute Ivan Sergeyev had a good chance to make the score bigger as well. However, he failed to hit the near top corner.
In added time, Dynamo launched a real onslaught on Adamov's goal, and after one of the numerous crosses, Vyacheslav Grulev tried to send the ball into the net, but it ended up in the hands of the goalkeeper.
As a result, Zenit won by 2:1 on aggregate, and now Dynamo will play in the Regions Path quarterfinals. The draw will be held on Friday. In the next RPL match, our team will host Rostov at VTB Arena in late March. You can already buy tickets on our website.
