The Icelandic striker, Vidar Kjartansson, thought his goal in last night’s match against Zenit St. Petersburg would be part of the big win over the club who is thought to be the strongest in Group D of the Europa League Group Stages. Number 24 himself couldn’t believe the turn of events that resulted in a shocking loss:

“The goal I scored really means nothing now since we didn’t win the game. It’s simply impossible to comprehend. We played good attractive football, with solid defense over the course of 77 minutes. It’s hard for me to explain the disappointment we are all feeling right now.”

The effect that this result may have on the upcoming games:

“We have to learn from this game. It’s so important. We have to take the good from how we played, but we also have to be aware that when we play teams at this level, should you make a mistake you will pay for it dearly. We have to continue on and learn the lesson. I’m very disappointed about the result.”

On Dasa’s red card and the referee’s ruling giving Zenit a free kick from with in the box that resulted in a goal and how it impacted the final minutes:

“Dasa’s mistimed tackle in the middle of the pitch deserved a yellow card. But if you really look at what happened we were punished twice; the red card and a free kick from inside the box, which is even worse than a penalty. There’s a lot of talk about these things around the refereeing world that leads to a double punishments and that’s exactly what happened to us and there’s no question that is what changed the game. As soon as the cut the lead from this decision they totally came back into the game.”

Haris Medunjanin talked about not being able to win the match against Zenit St. Petersburg on the first Europa League Matchday at the Netanya Stadium:

“Nobody understood why there was a free kick including the Zenit players. When you play such a good game and you give it away, it was not very professional from our side. We need to know that games are 95 or 96 minutes and we have to be focused until the end of the match. It happened against Beitar and now it happened against Zenit.”

More about the ruling on the pitch:

“These things happen in football, where a new rule comes up that nobody knows about. We were all in shock. I don’t want to talk about the referees.”

Learning from experience:

“When you come into a game like this as an underdog against such a good team and one that has so many international players with a lot of experience. But when you are leading after close to 80 minutes you have to play a it smarter by keeping the ball with the team and also have some help from the referee instead of giving up a goal on such a free kick. What can you do, it’s football and I hope we can learn from this”

Take aways from the match:

“We need to take from everything we do. We have no points and there are five games to play. But if we play like this then I think we have a good chance of making it to the second round. But it’s just the early stages of the season and we have a few important league games before the next Europa League match.”

Following the 3:4 loss to Zenit St. Petersburg, the Yellow & Blue midfielder, Yossi Benayoun didn’t hide his disappointment from the match:

“This is a hard loss to digest. We played well and were leading 3:0, the points were in our hands, but that’s football, sometimes it’s in our favor and sometimes it’s against us. We played against a big team who we gave the chance to come back into the game. They had plenty of chances near the end of the contest to score.”

The club’s ability to close out the final minutes of a match:

“We felt good. Both on the offensive side of the pitch as well as the defensive. We felt positive playing against them, as we held the ball and slowed down the end of the match, maybe we should have done it more. When you make a mistake at these levels, you pay the price and let your opponent get back into the game, it becomes very difficult to stop the snowball effect.”

On Zenit’s second goal:

It came after a red card was issued and it was a shock for the team to lose both a player and for them to cut the lead to 3:2. This put us under a lot of pressure and we should have tried to stop it. But that didn’t happen today except for the fact that we were able to stand toe to toe with our opponent who on paper looked to be much better.”

Having to prepare now for the match against Raanana:

“We have to be well prepared just like any other match. We’ll already begin looking at Raanana at the training session tomorrow. Every league match is difficult but we have a big squad with a lot of good players and we have to win the game.”

Shota Arveladze, the Yellow & Blue Head Coach spoke about the unbelievable and unthinkable outcome on Matchday One of his club’s Europa League contest against Zenit St. Petersburg at the Netanya Stadium. The Georgian boss talked about his disappointment, if the match against Beutar had an effect on this game as well as commenting on the new rule that UEFA had out in place concerning fouls and yellow cards:

“It was a new rule that in ten seconds you have to go out and not touch the ball, but the rules were changed to not punish the team twice. I don’t know or understand the logic of this rule but unfortunately this happened to us. But it just wasn’t that, we collapsed and gave up quick goals. It’s very hard to take. If Dasa wouldn’t have touched the ball it would have been a red card and no foul, but it was the referee who allowed the game to continue. When it’s a second yellow, the referee should stop the play, issue the red card and continue. We were punished twice by the new rule. This really led to our losing the game.”

Earlier substitutions?

“I made the substitutions after Zenit scored some goals and when Dasa was out. We were up so I didn’t think we needed to make changes earlier.”

Analyzing the match:

“We have to really improve and it’s really important. When we give up a goal we have to keep playing and even when we have ten men we should also be able to stand up against the opponent. It was a problem and led to the collapse.”

What did you say to the team after the match?

“I didn’t say anything to the boys.”

Did the match against Beitar have any effect on the result tonight?

“We can always connect anything, training, press conferences and games. It’s the same team, same boys, the time is short with just a few days between games. I can say yes or no. It’s a new day, a new challenge. We wanted to come out to play and I still have to give our team credit, the match was not easy and we scored some nice goals. It’s not easy, but we have no time to dream as we have a game in just three days.”

Have you ever experienced this type of game before:

“I lost 3:0 but we drew even 3:3 as a player. As a coach I have never experienced anything like this and I hope I never do again.”

Leadership on the pitch:

“If you really analyze the game, the boys talk to each other all game, they knew how to mark and followed who they needed to. We have had games where we left for five or ten minutes and came back. I see my role as giving the boys that they can do it. We can come out and play our own game but we have to compete and finish the game even if we are up 3:0. This was a very bad day for me. But I can see that the boys can do it and they have to finish the game.”

Effect of the match going forward:

“I’m not going to say nothing happened but we have to pass this. Last year I’m sure they had some rough games but this was like two games in 90 minutes. We have no time to think and we have a league match in a few days, it’s the past and it’s over. We can analyze this and get stronger see where we made the mistake and not do this again.”

Maccabi took a 3:0 lead on a brace by Haris Medunjanin and Vidar Kjartansson’s first goal as a member of the Yellow & Blue but Zenit stormed back with four unanswered goals against a ten-man home side as Maccabi fell 3:4 on Matchday One of the Europa League.

Pre-Match

For his first ever match as a Head Coach in the Europa League, Shota Arveladze had Predrag Rajikovic in goal with a defensive quartet of Eli Dasa, Tal Ben Haim, Egor Filipenko and Omri Ben Harush in front of him. Captain Gal Alberman was back in the lineup in his usual defensive midfielder position with Nosa Igiebor and Haris Medunjanin beside him as an attacking trio of Yossi Benayoun, Tal Ben Chaim and Vidar Kjartansson provided the offense.

Available on the bench for the Georgian boss was keeper Daniel Lifshitz, Oscar Scarione, Eden Ben Basat, Barak Itzhaki, Dor Micha, Eyal Golasa and Dor Peretz.

First Half

Omri Ben Harush tried to get the home side on the board first but his 5th minute attempt from outside of the box went off of a Zenit defender and out for an ensuing corner kick. Three minutes later, Axel Witsel’s header off of a free kick almost found its way behind Rajikovic but the Serbian shot stopper made a quick save.

In the 13th minute, Zenit passed the ball around the pitch and into the box where Ben Haim cleared it to Witsel, but his chance was collected by Rajikovic to keep the match goalless. Three minutes later, Ben Chaim received a nice pass from Alberman but his short range effort just bounced off of the left post. Ben Haim, who already had made a couple of quality defensive plays cleared the ball away yet again leading to a yellow card being issued to Zenit’s number 9 Aleksandr Kokorin in the 20th minute.

Finally, after 26 minutes of play Maccabi got on the board first. Medunjanin swung the ball into the box from long range on the right side of the pitch towards a leaping Benayoun but number 51 just missed heading the ball that found its way into the goal anyways giving the Yellow & Blue a 1:0 lead. Ten minutes later Medunajnin tried his luck from the left side with a scorcher of an effort but the ball just sailed over the goal as Maccabi took a slim 1:0 advantage into the break.

Second Half

It didn’t take the Yellow & Blue long to add an insurance marker as Tal Ben Chaim lifted a perfect pinpoint ball to Kjartansson in the box that the Icelandic striker easily headed home behind the Zenit keeper for a 2:0 lead in the 50th minute.

Following a 57th minute yellow card to Zenit captain Javi Garcia, Witsel tried his luck from 16 meters out that just whipped by the post and then received a yellow card two minutes later for a reckless tackle. The visitors may have hoped that Maccabi would sit on the two goal lead, but that wasn’t the case as Medunjanin struck again for the Yellow & Blue.

This time the Bosnian midfielder lined up a perfect free kick from the right side of the goal and beat Zenit keeper Lodygin for a 3:0 lead. Four minutes later, Eden Ben Basat came on for the second goal scorer Vidar Kjartansson, however, Zenit pulled one back three minutes after that to give the Russian side life late in the contest.

Coach Arveladze made his second substitute of the evening as he brought on Dor Micha for Benayoun but that didn’t stop what happened next.

Dasa picked up his second yellow card and was ousted from the game with a red card as Mauricio who came on earlier scored on a free kick in the box to get Zenit to within one goal, 3:2.

After Maccabi’s third substitution with Dor Peretz joining the fray for Ben Chaim the unthinkable happened; St. Petersburg drew even at 3:3 as Giuliano tapped home the ball. And then to add insult to injury, Djordjevic scored two minutes into injury time to defeat Maccabi 4:3 in an unbelievable turn of events at the Netanya Stadium.

Artillery Corps

In Zenit’s last match, Arsenal Tula suffered a demolition at the hands of their opponent as Zenit pumped five goals into the back of the Tula goal. A penalty, deep passes and long balls were just part of the arsenal of weapons that Zenit used in their attack. However, there was yet another way that Lucescu’s players were outstanding and that was in their long shots. As you can see from the chart, the Zenit players enjoy taking many chances from outside of the box.

40% of Zenit’s shots came from outside of the box and the most potent weapon was Giuliano (with an average of 2.4 attempts per match which we’ll expand on later), Oleg Shatov (1.8 shots per match) who won’t play against Maccabi, Kerzhakov (4.4 attempts on goal) and Axel Witsel (1.8 shots on average) who was just a step away from signing with Juventus.

The Spanish Axe

Zenit’s midfield may have many offensive weapons including Witsel, Giuliano, Mauricio and Shatov but our focus is going to be on the defensive midfielder who will attempt to stop the Yellow & Blue attack cold, Javi Garcia. The Spaniard began his impressive career at Real Madrid, continued on to Benfica and Manchester City until finally he arrived at Zenit and is thought to be one of the stalwarts in the Russian outfit’s Starting XI and for good reason.

Garcia’s number in terms of defensive actions have a very high success rate, one of the best at Zenit. Let’s take two totally different Zenit matches, one against their arch-rival CSKA and one of their most recent matchups Amkar Perm. In both contests, Garcia led the side in defensive actions (17/23 success against CSKA and 17/20 against Prem). The following table shows you how many balls Garcia was able to intercept this season, second to only the Portuguese central defender Neto.

Garcia’s importance is paramount and he plays in Zenit’s half, close to the center circle but his game isn’t limited to just pressuring the ball. The Spanish midfielder is one of the most critical links between the defenders and the offensive minded midfielders and attack. Witsel, Shatov who won’t take part in the match and defender Smolnikov are the main targets when Garcia looks to take action.

In Hulk’s shoes

The star of the team, number 7, left for China in a massive deal. The story of Eran Zahavi and Maccabi Tel Aviv also happened to Zenit, except the monetary amounts were even bigger. The Brazilian left a gaping hole in Zenit’s offense as he scored 59 goals over 3.5 seasons for St. Petersburg, a hole that is trying to be filled by a number of players. For the time being the player who has taken upon himself to help out the attack is another Brazilian, Giuliano.

The Brazilian midfielder who arrived at Zenit this season, has begun to pay dividends, leading his team’s scorers with 4 out of the 11 goals scored so far this campaign. Long shots along with short passes to the strikers and amazing technical ability are just past of the attacking midfielder’s repertoire who will test Shota Arveladze’s club tomorrow. If Giuliano gets into a bit of trouble, there’s another Brazilian who will be waiting to take his spot in one Mauricio.

In short

 

• The Yellow & Blue defense better be careful of Javi Garcia’s free kicks.
• Number 18: Igor Smolnikov, Zenit’s right back is dangerous on the wing and the Maccabi defenders will need to be careful as he sends six crosses on average per match into the opponent’s box.
• After Ezequiel Garay left for Valencia, Neto and Criscito have taken over as the main central defenders while Yuri Zhirkov who is considered to be more of a left midfielder than a defensive back, will play on the left wing.