This could be a tricky match for Real Madrid, but having said that the Spanish champions have showed improvement since the early days of the Spanish La Liga.
Zenit St Petersburg will be looking for a change of fortune after they went down 0-1 late in the match to Juventus in Turin. They will be buoyed by the fact that they were impressive in their 3-0 Premier League match against Lokomotiv Moscow at the weekend. On the other hand Real Madrid had to wait until late in their match against Real Betis to win 2-1 away from home. They lead Group H on goal difference. Apart from Nicolas Lombaerts, Zenit are likely to be at full strength. It is not clear as to whether the ‘much sought after striker’ Andrei Arsharvin will play as he left out of the side at the weekend. For Real Madrid Christoph Metzelder and Michel Salgado are likely to be rested, Guti, Fernando Gago and Wesley Sneijder are on the injury list. However Fabio Cannavaro returns.
This could be a lively match where the Russian home crowd are due to get right behind their team as they hope to upset Real Madrid. It is not unlikely that Zenit St Petersburg can win this match at home.
REVIEW:
It was not plain sailing for the Spanish champions as they were pushed all the way by a resilient but yet skilful Zenit St Petersburg side.
The first goal came as early as the third minute when a Rafael van der Vaart cross was deflected into his own net by Tomas Hubocan. Real Madrid were on top for the first twenty minutes and thereafter Zenit took control for lengthy periods. Zenit's pressure finally paid off in the twenty fifth minute when Arshavin's cross from the left towards found the Brazilian forward Danny who got past Gabriel Heinze and flicked the ball past Casillas. Six minutes later Real Madrid were back in front when Sebastien Puygrenier's desperate clearance from a Van der Vaart shot fell to Van Nistelrooy inside the area and he made no mistake, coolly firing past Malafeev.
Zenit missed a number of crucial chances, as well as a penalty appeal, to take the lead but were denied by goalkeeper Iker Casillas and the referee respectively on a number of occasions. The longer the game went on the closer Zenit went to scoring the crucial equaliser.