Chapter 843: Establishing an Advantage

Spalletti rubbed his forehead!

After qualifying for the group stage, the Italian coach is still full of hope for the team's prospects in the Champions League!

Although they will face favourites Manchester City in the round of 16, their home stadium is the biggest advantage for the Russian side.

In Russia, how many giant teams from the European continent have collapsed!!

Moreover, Zenit still has a few stars who can handle it.

Arshavin has played for Arsenal for many years, and the Russian czar has a lot of experience in the Champions League.

Hulk Hulk is very strong on the individual, and his large body and relatively soft foot technique can give him a big advantage in one-on-one situations.

However, the premise of all this is that you must play well away from home!

The first is not to lose!

And once they lose, it will be very difficult for Zenit to knock out Manchester City at home.

However, if Zenit scores away goals and loses by only one goal, Zenit may not have a chance of progressing to the quarter-finals.

And now, two goals behind!

And it's just getting started!

Conceding consecutive goals in a short period of time!

For Zenit, who was already in a weak position, the situation was already at the most critical moment!

And for Spalletti, the most important thing now is to stabilize the situation first!

If Manchester City scores another goal at this time, then Zenit will be completely spent!

If Manchester City's talented attackers are in full form, let alone Zenit, even if any team in this world comes, it will be difficult to deal with!

The thought that your team is likely to suffer a massacre away from home!

Spalletti broke out in a cold sweat on his back at this time!

Absolute... There must be no such thing!

Even if it's two goals down, if the situation is stabilized now, Zenit will not have a chance to score.

If Zenit can score a goal, even if it loses 2-1 away, it will not be the end of the world.

Although Spalletti had made a similar arrangement two minutes earlier, this time, he repeated it again!

Steady!!

Shrink the exclusion zone!

"Even if all 11 people are standing in front of goal, they must not be allowed to continue scoring!! Damn it!!! ”

Spalletti, who was in a hurry, even rushed out with swear words.

Soon!

Zenit is fully recycled!!

Even a few of their strikers were completely recycled back into the box!!

So!

Manchester City has been replaced!!

They completely pressed up, anyway, at the back, Manchester City is not under any pressure at all!

Even goalkeeper Oblak is already standing in the center circle!!

The two full-backs are also used exclusively as wingers!

The restricted area is densely packed with people, and it is difficult to penetrate out.

And there are no high strikers in the penalty area, so Manchester City simply shoots from the edge of the penalty area!

In order to block the threat of Manchester City's long-range shot, Zenit's players also stepped forward frequently to block the action!

The eleventh minute of the game!!

Antoine Griezmann shoots from the top of the box!!

Arshavin stepped forward to block!!

Arshavin, who opened his legs as much as possible to expand his blocked area, pulled the thigh muscles this time.

Arshavin's football hit Arshavin's bottom line!

Arshavin, on the other hand, sat in the arena holding his thighs in pain.

"Arshavin's situation looks so bad!!"

"This is Arshavin's old injury, and the reason why he left the mainstream league and chose to return to Russia is largely due to injuries!!"

At this point, Zenit's team doctor trotted into the field.

After giving Arshavin a simple diagnosis, he immediately made a gesture to replace him!

"Arshavin couldn't hold on!! Zenit has to make a substitution!! ”

Former Bayern Munich midfielder Tymoshchuk stood on the sidelines warming up and was ready to play.

When Arshavin walked out of the field with the help of the team doctor, the referee waved his hand and signaled Tymoshchuk to enter the field!!

"In the thirteenth minute of the game, Zenit made a forced substitution, Arshavin suffered a thigh muscle strain and was replaced by Tymoshchuk!!"

On the sidelines, Spalletti's expression was already very grim.

The current situation of his team can be described as a house leak that happened to rain overnight!

Moreover, even after the substitution was completed, Zenit's situation did not change!

Fifteenth minute of the game!!

David Silva midfielder!!

Antoine Griezmann's anti-offside position is successful!

Under Lombardz's watch, he stepped into the box and shot from a tight angle, and Lombarts desperately tackled to defuse the danger, and Manchester City almost extended their lead.

With Manchester City pressing, Zenit has also begun to try to put some pressure on Manchester City in attack.

After all, it's still dangerous to let Manchester City shoot all the time!

Twenty-first minute of the game!

Hulk gets the ball on the right flank!

He crossed after breaking through Kolarov!

Midwinter suddenly stepped forward in front of the goal and shook his head to attack the goal!

But he didn't touch the ball!

It was Zenit's most threatening attack in the first twenty minutes of the game!

And after this attack, the confidence of the Zenit players seems to have risen a little.

In the 26th minute, Hulk received a pass from his teammates and suddenly shot from a distance of about 30 meters from the goal!

Oblak is in a good position and holds the ball in his arms!

It was the visitors' first shot on goal at full-time!!

However!

The overall momentum of the game is still firmly controlled by Manchester City!!

Thirty minutes!

Antoine Griezmann takes a free kick from the right outside the box!

The football was hoisted straight into the penalty area!!

Fernandinho jumps high to grab the goal and shoot!

The ball hit his shoulder and bounced out of bounds.

It was a very beautiful pass, but Fernandinho couldn't get his own header off the hook and couldn't find the ball.

The Brazilian was also embarrassed to extend his hand to Griezmann after landing.

And a minute later, City's attack returned!!

David Silva, Antoine Griezmann, Hazard make a continuous passing combination!

In the end, Eden Hazard went straight to the ribs!

Sanchez smashed into the penalty area and pressed directly into the bottom line!!

Then the inverted triangle backpass!!

Eden Hazard follows up with the ball and shoots into the far corner!!

The soccer ball hit the post!!

Zenit escaped!!

Thirty-third minute!!

Sanchez cuts inside and shoots from distance!!

The football was saved by the opposing goalkeeper!!

A minute later!!

Timoshchuk brought down Griezmann from behind!!

The referee showed a yellow card to the Bayern veteran!!

Thirty-eighth minute!

From a free kick twenty-eight meters from the goal, Griezmann hit a lift kick!

It's just that the ball hit the crossbar!

Popped out of bounds!!

And with this shot, the two sides failed to create any more very good shooting opportunities in the first half!

When the referee blew the whistle for the end of the first half, Spalletti let out a long sigh of relief.

Although it was still two goals behind, at least it stopped the decline of Zenit conceding consecutive goals after the opening.

Although it's still not too good on the scene.

But at least for forty minutes, Zenit didn't concede another goal after all!

This is certainly a good thing!

Players from both sides walk off the pitch.

The Zenit players had a look of relief on their faces.

They were almost completely suppressed in the first half and could only get a few sporadic counter-attack opportunities.

And there wasn't much smile on the faces of the Manchester City players, even though they were two goals ahead, but that was forty minutes ago, and after that, City attacked in a row, and even hit the crossbar twice!

The score shows no signs of changing.

It wasn't a pleasant experience for the Manchester City players either!

The fifteen minutes of the intermission passed quickly!

Neither side made any substitutions!

In the second half, it was easy to fight again!!

Manchester City, who were the first to kick off, soon took the lead!

Eden Hazard dribbled into the right side of the six-yard box with the ball!

Furious shot from a small angle!

The football was bravely defused by goalkeeper Rodkin!!

The goal sent a sigh of regret to the Manchester City fans at the scene.

Even Gao Bo is the same.

There were a couple of chances in the first half, but they didn't score.

Although a two-goal lead is a huge lead for Manchester City.

But Gao Bo's idea is that if they can establish the advantage of promotion in the first leg, the team can take a breather in the second leg, after all, when the Champions League game comes, the team will start fighting on the fourth line!

If you can save a little physical strength, then you should save.

It's good to be 2-0 up if you can get to the end of the game, but what if you are equalized by the opponent in the meantime?

2 to 1, although it is also a win, but this is an away goal for the opponent!

In this way, in the second leg of Russia, the team will not have a chance to relax.

In that game, the team must also go all out, otherwise, the defending champions will capsize in the gutter and be eliminated by Zenit........ That's a big joke!!

And although this goal was not scored, it made the Manchester City players more urgent to score!

Next, Manchester City's attack became more and more fierce!

A huge tsunami that constantly laps against Zenit's crumbling coastal defenses!

The forty-ninth minute of the game!

Griezmann broke through and tried to get the ball past Crisito and Lombard tried to close the goal, only for the ball to pass at their feet!

Hazard cut in at high speed against offside and almost got a chance to score a one-on-one goal!

The Zenit goalkeeper came out a little faster and got the football!

50th minute of the game!!

Sanchez slipped past the opposing defender in Marseille near the baseline, and his performance caused a round of applause!

Then, Sanchez burst into the box and passed back!!

The Zenit defender rushed to clear the ball and kicked the ball towards his own goal!

Fortunately, Zenit goalkeeper Rodkin concentrated and blocked the ball off the bottom line with his foot!!

The 54th minute of the game!!

Zenit midfielder Anyukov brings down David Silva from behind!

The referee showed him a yellow card!

It was the second yellow card of the game!!

Manchester City's attack is even more aggressive!

However!

The so-called often walk by the river, how can there be no one who does not get his shoes wet.

In the 55th minute, Zenit got a very crucial counterattack!!

Kieran Trippier's cross from the right was headed over!!

Then the Zenit player kicked the ball straight into the field!!

Zenit striker Rondon chested the ball and gave the ball to the Hulk, who was quick to plug in!

Rondon got the ball to the quick Hulk, who sent a cross on the left, and Rondon unloaded the ball in front of goal and fired a left-footed shot at the post, then he followed up with a follow-up shot that was saved by Oblak, and finally Shatov in front of goal swept the ball into the near corner.

Two to one!!

The Russian team pulled a goal back!!

"Pretty !!!!!!!"

The commentator from Russia roared from the commentary seat!!

"Zenit pulled a goal back!! A very valuable away goal!!! This kept their hope alive for the second round! Of course, there is still time for the game! Zenit still had a chance to continue to equalize!! ”

The Zenit players were also very excited after the goal.

In the stands, the Russians, who had come from afar, also gave their own cheers for the first time.

However, it turned out that the Russians were happy ... It's too early!

Sixty-first minute of the game!

Eden Hazard won the ball in the box and suddenly tucked it down the right!!

David Silva cut into the box at high speed and crossed the middle!!

Hazard outflanked in place!

Take advantage of the situation and shoot low!!

Even though the goalkeeper had touched the football, there was no main goal to stop it!

Three-to-one!!

Manchester City remain two goals ahead.

And this goal did not dampen the momentum of the Zenit players!

Instead, they launched a rush after the kick-off!!

Sixty-sixth minute of the game!

Faizulin stumbled into the box and crossed!

The soccer ball passed between Umtiti's legs, followed by Hulk's follow-up, and a shot fired the anti-aircraft gun!

Zenit missed an opportunity!

Wasting an opportunity, of course, will be punished!

The 71st minute of the game !!

After Griezmann cut off the ball at the feet of Timoshchuk from 35 yards out, he first crossed diagonally to the right!!

David Silva burst into the box with the ball and scored with a low shot into the far corner of the box!!

Four to one!!

City extended their lead to three goals!!

"Man City have scored again!! Four-to-one!!! This lead has almost guaranteed Manchester City to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League! ”

"Manchester City at home are unstoppable!! The same is true in the Champions League!! Zenit did so well that they even scored at home to Manchester City, but City scored three more goals than them – a gap that was almost impossible to bridge! ”

"Can Zenit beat Manchester City 3-0 at home? That sounds like a fantasy. You know, in the Premier League, Manchester City haven't lost so far!! ”

The commentators were talking.

And after David Silva scored the fourth goal, there were no more goals in the games after that!

In the end, Manchester City won 4-1 at home against Zenit!

Half of my body has entered the quarterfinals!