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 the Man Utd at bay and the match was a flattering scoreline for the English club.
The hard-tackling Ukrainian International Anatoly Tymoschuk was ruthless in the midfield and set the tone of match early, fighting for every blade of grass. 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 Russia's hunt for World Cup glory. Danni, who has only been with the club for a few days after coming over from Dynamo Moscow for €30m, fit in easily and leaves all Zenit supporters excited about the Champions League. 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.
