Zenit Saint Petersburg easily defeats Man Utd in Super Cup!

Sir Alex Ferguson will have to wait for another chance to win the Super Cup as Dick Advocaat’s Zenit Saint Petersburg easily defeated Manchester United 2-1 to win the UEFA Super Cup.

Pavel Pogrebnyak and new-man Danni contributed goals each to give the defending Russian Premier League and UEFA Cup a 2-0 lead before Nemanja Vidic drew one back for Man Utd. However the slick passing and constant movement of Zenit constantly kept Man Utd at bay and the match was a flattering scoreline for the English club.

Russian Internationals were absolutely brilliant in the match. Talismanic striker Pavel Pogrebnyak, who sadly missed the Euro 2008 for Russia due to injury, was a constant threat to score and created numerous opportunities with his movement. His return to fitness bodes well for the hunt for World Cup glory. Aleksandr Anyukov shut-down the Man Utd attack and sprung many counters particularly working-well with fellow international Konstantin Zyryanov, whose movement and pace was too-much for Man Utd. Andrei Arshavin, entered the match at the half, showed his typical attacking prowess and from all inside accounts, appears re-dedicated to the Zenit cause. To pick a man-of-the-match is a near impossible task but I do wish to mention the continued promise of Igor Denisov who set up the first goal, was superb on either end of the pitch. It was a great team victory as Zenit continues to fill its hardware case.

After the match Dick Advocaat commented:
“I think if you see the chances we created it was a deserved win. The start was a bit difficult as for 15 minutes we had some problems with the movement of the strikers. From a certain moment we started controlling things and creating chances, although we didn’t score enough. In the second half when the second central defender went off, we became more dangerous. Overall it was a well-deserved win over the 90 minutes.

I think it is not an easy draw but we did really well in the UEFA Cup so why not in the Champions League? Tonight we gave a warning so people can know what to expect. But the Champions League is different to tonight which in principle was a friendly match, but an important one of course. I have a squad I’m happy with, we still have a good bench, so there’s no need to buy more players – as long as everybody stays. We have spent net €25m this summer which is peanuts compared to the big clubs in Europe.”