We’ve rounded up the key points and stats from Zenit’s win over Lokomotiv in Kaliningrad.

One victory now separates Zenit from equalling CSKA in number of Super Cup titles. Having beaten Lokomotiv, they became six-time winners of the tournament, while the Armymen have lifted the trophy seven times - although the Reb-Blues’ last victory was came back in 2018. Lokomotiv remain third in Super Cup wins with three titles, followed by Rubin (two) and Spartak (one).

For the second time the Super Cup finished 3-0. The first game this scoreline happened came when CSKA beat Zenit in Rostov in 2013. Then the Armymen’s success was brought by a Keisuke Honda double and a goal by Sergey Ignashevich. The victories of CSKA in 2013 and Zenit in 2021 are the largest in the history of the tournament.

The third goal in the Super Cup was scored by Sardar Azmoun and in doing so he drew level with Jo, who has been the competition’s top scorer since 2007. The Brazilian played for CSKA in two matches: in 2006, he scored one goal against Spartak, while a year later he scored a double against the Red-Whites. Azmoun was participating in his third Super Cup, and has now scored a double against Lokomotiv in 2019 and one goal in 2021.

Zenit now have four victories in the tournament over Lokomotiv. They have beaten their opponents in the last two editions of the Super Cup, and before that they defeated the Muscovites in 2008 at the Luzhniki and in 2015 at the Petrovsky. Lokomotiv managed to win against the Blue-White-Sky Blues only in 2019 at the VTB Arena. No one in the history of the tournament has met each other more often than Zenit and Lokomotiv.

Five coaches have won the Super Cup more than once. Sergey Semak, who took the trophy for the second season in a row, joins Valery Gazzaev, Kurban Berdyev, Leonid Slutsky and Yuri Semin, and the latter remains the record holder with three wins. Before Zenit’s head coach, only Gazzaev and Slutsky lifted the trophy two years in a row - both with CSKA - but no one has won the tournament three seasons in a row.

Zenit won their sixth trophy under the leadership of Semak. The 45-year-old coach has started his fourth season in charge, having led them to three RPL titles, a Super Cup win, and in the Russian Cup in 2019/20. Both in the championship and in the Super Cup, Semak remains the only person to have won both as a player and as a head coach.

For the seventh time the Super Cup was held outside of Moscow. After Krasnodar hosted twice, the season curtain-raiser has been held in Samara, Rostov, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, and now Kaliningrad for the first time. The match was held at the Kaliningrad Stadium, built for the 2018 World Cup, and it was attended by 16,388 spectators. The previous two Super Cups were held in Moscow at the VTB Arena and VEB Arena. The last time the competition left the capital was in 2018, when the match was held in Nizhny Novgorod.

Ten Zenit players have scored in the Super Cup’s history. In Kaliningrad, Daler Kuzyaev and Aleksandr Erokhin scored their debut goals in the tournament. Zenit’s first goals in the Super Cup were scored by Andrey Arshavin and Pavel Pogrebnyak, who distinguished themselves in 2008. Then Aleksey Ionov (2011), Igor Smolnikov (2015), Jose Mauricio (2016), Sardar Azmoun (2019 and 2021) Artem Dzyuba and Magomed Ozdoev (both 2020) scored for the team.

14 players of Zenit and Lokomotiv played in each of the last three meetings of the teams in the Super Cup. Six of them have been Zenit players: Yaroslav Rakitsky, Magomed Ozdoev, Aleksandr Erokhin, Artem Dzyuba, Sardar Azmoun and Sebastian Driussi. The eight Railwaymen are Guilherme, Maciej Rybus, Murilo, Dmitry Barinov, Rifat Zhemaletdinov, Anton Miranchuk, Grzegorz Krychowiak and Fedor Smolov.

18 years was the age of Lokomotiv debutant Sergey Babkin, for whom the match in Kaliningrad was the first for the senior team in any competition. The midfielder replaced Dmitry Barinov  in the 80th minute. Babkin joined Lokomotiv in July 2019 from the Anzhi youth system; at the end of 2017, at the age of 15, he played two matches for the youth team. After moving to Moscow, Babkin played for Lokomotiv teams at Youth Football Liga-1 and Youth Championship level, before making his debut for Kazanka in April 2021, for whom he played 11 matches in the third-tier PFL.

Photo: Anna Meyer / Zenit