Russian Dispatch - Week 30: Zenit Take the Last Champions League Spot

On the last day of Russian season, the only important issue still open was the last ticket to the Champions League. While Rubin Kazan secured the title a week ago, with Spartak Moscow certain to join them in the group stage in 2010/2011 season, Zenit St Petersburg and Lokomotiv Moscow fought for third place, leading to Champions League qualifying rounds.

The rivals were level on points before the whistle, with the same head-to-head record, and thus advantage was on Zenit’s side due only to better goal difference. The Gazprom-sponsored club had to beat Spartak in St Petersburg to make sure of returning to the big stage next year. Lokomotiv had a very straightforward task of beating rock-bottom Khimki, which they duly did without any trouble, scoring two early goals on the way to 3-1 win. Dmitry Sychev and Dmitry Torbinsky played some breathtaking one-touch football when scoring the third goal, and it was fourth successive win for Railmen, but was only good enough to finish fourth. Zenit did the job in an ill-tempered game, winning 2-1.

Spartak lost the title battle to Rubin a week ago, and some expected them to be under-motivated since they had nothing to play for. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. Valery Karpin’s side had a decent game, and even got some very unexpected help from referee Sukhina on 44 minutes. Hungarian midfielder Szabolcs Huszti was amazingly shown his second yellow card for trying to surprise Lokomotiv defence and play a free kick too fast. Zenut players were furious, and captain Aleksandr Anyukov nearly ate Sukhina for lunch, luckily escaping red card himself. That event could have had a huge impact on the game, but for Konstantin Zyryanov. The Russian international midfielder scored with the very same free kick Sukhina ordered to retake, and Zenit took the lead on the stroke of half time.

Nobody deserved to score such a crucial goal more than Zyryanov. Now 32, he lost his only chance to play at the World Cup when Russia were ousted in the playoffs by Slovenia. A late-bloomer, Zyryanov reached the top level just three years ago, winning Russian Player of the Year award in 2007 and having a sensational Euro 2008. While Andrei Arshavin, Yuri Zhirkov and Igor Akinfeev will still have a chance to shine on the biggest stage in Brazil 2014, the dream is over for Zyryanov who surely deserved much better. At least he will have another shot at the Champions League.

At the start of the second half, Belgian defender Nicolas Lombaerts headed home from a corner, and that was that. Spartak’s attempt to fight back against ten men was thwarted by keeper Vyacheslav Malafeev who made a great save from Ibson header. A consolation goal from Malik Fathi proved too little too late. Spartak lost their third successive game, and Zenit celebrated wildly.

As for the champions, Rubin won 3-0 at Kuban despite fielding a reserve team, extending their final lead over Spartak to a very healthy eight points. Now they have to stay in form for a trip to San Siro next week, where win over Inter will see them through to Champions League knock-out stage. The other Russian representatives, CSKA Moscow, signed off with equally impressive 3-0 win over Saturn, finishing fifth and qualifying for Europa League next season. FK Moscow, who lost 1-2 to Dinamo anyway, are out of Europe, unless themselves or Zenit win the Russian Cup, but that won’t bother too many people, since they have almost no fans.

Those interested in trips to Siberia would be glad to know Sibir Novosibirsk, from Russia’s third biggest city, were promoted to the Premier League for the very first time. Joining them are Anzhi Makhachkala from the shores of the Caspian Sea. The duo replace Kuban and Khimki, the latter losing their last 15 games, probably never to return.