Zenit steamrolled by Red Bull Salzburg in scorching nine-goal feast

Zenit St. Petersburg were ruthlessly outclassed 6-3 by Red Bull Salzburg on Saturday in an unorthodox match format of three 40-minute periods. Artem Dzyuba provided two assists but could do little to stop the energy and precision of the Austrian champions on Leon Musaev’s 21st birthday.

Salzburg took the lead in the 5th minute through Mergim Berisha’s penalty after a clumsy challenge from Yordan Osorio brought down Hwang hee-chan in the box. Aleksandr Kokorin, wearing the captain’s armband again, had a header tipped wide with Zenit’s best chance in the first period.

Hwang twisted and turned Osorio inside out before scoring his own on 34 minutes after Wilmar Barrios had been hounded out of possession on the edge of his own box. Seconds later, Andre Ramalho rose to bullet a header past Mikhail Kerzhakov.

Osorio made amends in the second period with a neat finish from Dzyuba’s header in the 53rd minute. The latter proved too much of a handful for his markers two minutes later as his hold-up play set up Oleg Shatov to sweep a tidy finish to make it 3-2.

Moments after both XIs were almost completely swapped on the hour mark, teenage striker Karim Adeyemi raced clear onto a long ball before easily rounding Maksim Rudakov to restore Salzburg’s two-goal lead. Robert Mak wasted two clear chances before finally rolling a one-on-one finish under Alexander Walke to pull it back to 4-3.

Just before the end of the second period, 18-year-old Peter Pokorny rocketed Branislav Ivanovic’s weak clearing header into the far corner to make it 5-3 to the Austrians. Sekou Koita sealed the resounding win in the 93rd minute with an emphatic low finish.

This result makes it 19 goals in total in Zenit’s two winter friendlies so far this year. After flying home they head out for their second training camp on Wednesday 29 January in Spain, where they will face FC Dudelange on 1 February and Russian Premier League rivals CSKA Moscow on 9 February.

Zenit St. Petersburg 3-6 Red Bull Salzburg
25 January, Aspire Academy, Qatar
Goals: Zenit - Osorio 53’, Shatov 55’, Mak 76’; Red Bull Salzburg - Berisha 5’, Ramalho 33’, Hwang 34’, Adeyemi 63’, Pokorny 79’, Koita 93’

Zenit 1st 45 mins: Kerzhakov (Rudakov 45’), Smolnikov, Osorio, Rakitskiy, Santos, Barrios, Islamkhan, Ozdoev, Shatov, Dzyuba, Kokorin
Zenit 2nd 45 mins: Rudakov (Vasyutin 90’), Karavaev, Prokhin, Ivanovic, Zhirkov, Kaplenko, Musaev, Mak (Vorobyov 105’), Erokhin, Sutormin, Driussi