CSKA Moscow 0-4 Zenit St. Petersburg
Saturday 20 June, VEB Arena

Goals: Ivanovic 2’, Malcom 9’, 45’, Driussi (pen) 90+4’

Man of the Match: Branislav Ivanovic

Sent off: Karpov 89’

Malcom and Branislav Ivanovic struck ruthlessly inside the opening 10 minutes for Zenit St. Petersburg to kill off the contest before CSKA Moscow had had a chance to get going. The Brazilian added a third on the stroke of halftime before Sebastian Driussi converted an added time penalty for the league leaders as they strolled to only their third win in 12 RPL visits to Moscow.

It didn’t take long for the league leaders to draw blood. Little more than a minute was on the clock when Dzyuba flicked on a long ball to strike partner Sardar Azmoun. The Iranian carried through on goal, shot, but Igor Akinfeev palmed it behind.

A simple corner routine saw Vyacheslav Karavaev curl the first-time return pass onto Ivanovic’s head to glance home the opener unchallenged. His marker, 17-year-old Vadim Karpov, was no match for the vastly experienced veteran’s power.

CSKA’s defence was torn apart again by simple attacking play from Zenit. Azmoun peeled off wide on the right before finding Dzyuba’s head. Mario Fernandes couldn’t prevent a header back towards Malcom, who profited from Karpov’s ballwatching to poke home a simple finish from a brief scramble.

Five minutes later CSKA were saved by an offside decision when Yaroslav Rakitskiy’s ball over the top found Dzyuba to square for an Azmoun tap-in, but they did begin to regain their composure.

Suddenly out of nowhere Ivan Oblyakov let fly with a thunderbolt from distance that beat Andrey Lunev but smacked against the crossbar. With the goalkeeper prostate, somehow Fedor Chalov contrived to take three touches before bumbling a weak effort from two yards into Lunev.

On the stroke of half time, Dzyuba’s languid carry forced CSKA’s defence back and allowed a shot from Douglas Santos. Although it was blocked, it fell to Malcom to fire home a third with Akinfeev wrong-footed.

The ease with which Zenit coasted through the second half could almost be summed up by the intervention of substitutes Driussi and Aleksandr Sutormin with 15 minutes to go. Aleksandr Erokhin cut the ball back through the box to the latter, and his goalbound shot was blocked by the former with acres of space again afforded to them.

Konstantin Maradishvili bent a dipping shot inches over Lunev’s crossbar with the keeper rooted to the spot in CSKA’s only serious threat after the break. To top off a miserable evening’s work, Karpov was sent off for wrestling Dzyuba to the ground in the 89th minute.

There was even time for a Sebastain Driussi penalty in added time when Igor Diveev was adjudged to handled the ball to move the reigning champions a step closer to retaining their title.

CSKA have a Moscow derby against Dynamo up next on Saturday 27 June, while Zenit welcome Krylia Sovetov Samara to St. Petersburg the day before.

CSKA: Akinfeev, Diveev, Vasin (Magnusson 46’), Karpov, Fernandes (Tiknizyan 84’), Bistrovic (Kuchaev 77’), Nababkin (Maradishvili 46’), Oblyakov, Vlasic, Sigurdsson (Bijol 65’), Chalov

Zenit: Lunev, Karavaev, Ivanovic, Rakitskiy, Santos, Malcom (Driussi 62’), Barrios (Musaev 90’), Ozdoev, Kuzyaev (Erokhin 62’), Azmoun (Sutormin 74’), Dzyuba (Rigoni 90’)