Dick Advocaat’s dream of Champions League glory took a massive downward turn as Zenit Saint Petersburg suffered a heart-breaking 2-1 loss to Real Madrid at Petrovsky Stadium.
Los Blancos came out on the attack and tested Vyacheslav Malafeev early. However disaster was just around the corner when a Rafael van der Vaart cross at the four minute mark was unfortunately cleared into the net by surprise starter Tomáš Hubočan for an own goal. A goal handicapped early, Zenit Saint Petersburg pushed forward looking for the leveling goal. At the twenty-fifth minute Andrei Arshavin orchestrated a splendid tying goal when he volleyed to an unmarked Danni in-close. However six minutes later the nightmare continued as with Zenit pushing forward for the lead, a defensive miscue gave Ruud van Nistelrooy a point-blank opportunity which he crisply deposited into the back of the net. With the score 2-1 in the visitors favour, Zenit drove ahead to level the match, yet opportunity after opportunity was squandered and they fell to their second successive Champions League defeat.
