Dzyuba breaks scoring record in rampant Zenit win

Zenit St. Petersburg 4-1 Dynamo Moscow
Friday 29 October, Gazprom Arena

Goals: Zenit - Claudinho 8’, Wendel 65’, Dzyuba 68’, Rakitsky 85’; Dynamo - Fomin (pen) 56’
Man of the Match: Yaroslav Rakitsky (Zenit)

Artem Dzyuba finally broke Oleg Veretennikov’s Russian championships scoring record as he came off the bench to nod in his 144th top-flight goal as Zenit romped past their nearest rivals.

It didn’t take Zenit long to stamp their authority on their top-of-the-table clash at home to Dynamo, as Claudingo stole in to apply the finishing touch to a loose ball in the box after just seven minutes. 

Sardar Azmoun made a hash of his shot from Aleksey Sutromin’s cross, but the ball bounced free with nobody closing it down until Claudinho skipped in ahead of Ivan Ordets before slotting comfortably from six yards out.

Ten minutes after the break, Dmitry Skopintsev danced through a body of defenders before chipping it towards Vyacheslav Grulev. The Dynamo striker’s header was deflected off Vyacheslav Karavaev’s arm, leaving Sergey Ivanov no choice but to point to the spot. Daniil Fomin swept home a clinical bottom-corner penalty to draw the visitors level.

The comeback was brutally cut short within a quarter of an hour though. On 65 minutes Artem Dzyuba came on, and within seconds Zenit were in front again as Wendel stroked a wonderfully controlled finish into the bottom corner after Sardar Azmoun’s selfless work and cutback. 

Azmoun then bulleted a header down into the ground that Anton Shunin could only palm upwards to present Dzyuba with arguably the easiest goal of his career from a yard out. Yaroslav Rakitsky curled a beautiful free kick into the top corner from the right flank to put the game even further out of reach.

Dynamo simply couldn’t cope with the lightning quick footwork and imaginative combinations between Claudinho and Wendel, or find a way past a Yaroslav Rakitsky-marshaled back three.

Zenit stay top on 29 points, while Dynamo remain second on 23 points.

Next RPL fixtures: Saturday 6 November - Dynamo vs Krasnodar; Sunday 7 November - Ural vs Zenit