Zenit squeeze Torpedo to conquer leadership

RPL Matchday 6
Zenit St. Petersburg 2-0 Torpedo Moscow
Sunday 21 August, Gazprom Arena, St. Petersburg

Goals: Zenit – Sergeev (84), Malcom (88)
Man of the Match: Ivan Sergeev (Zenit)

Last season winners of RPL and FNL met at Gazprom Arena, and Torpedo came with new coaching staff. Nikolay Savichev officially became head coach after Aleksandr Borodyuk departed, Nikolay Kovardaev and Andrey Gordeev, former Saturn, Anzhi and Mordovia manager, also joined the first team.

Former Zenit keeper Egor Baburin came back in the net of the Black-Whites due to Vitaly Botnar injury and suffered 29 shots on goal in total, eight of them reached the target. Zenit had been dominating for all 90 minutes, and only in the end it gave the result, when former Torpedo Ivan Sergeev tipped the Wendel pass and scored third goal in the season, again after coming on as substitute. Second goal came from Malcom breakthrough, the Brazilian got his second this season.

Zenit jump on top with 14 points having one-point advantage against Spartak and CSKA, while Torpedo, still winless, go down to 16th on one point.

Next RPL fixtures: Sunday 28 August – Ural vs Zenit, Torpedo vs Krasnodar