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WHO WAS PLAYING WITH REAL?
Yesterday Zenit was ingloriously defeated by Real Madrid at Santiago
Bernabeu Stadium in the last tie of the Champions League group stage.
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Raul Gonzalez (L) and Anatoly Timoschuk Photo
REUTERS
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Real vs. Zenit - 3:0 (1:0)
The scorers: Raul, 24 - 1:0, Robben, 49 - 2:0, Raul, 57 - 3:0.
Yesterday in Madrid there was a very important evening. Though this match
did not mean anything in the table but its result meant a lot for both
teams.
At Santiago Bernabeu the past and the future were meeting: the only started
future of Real with the new head coach Juande Ramos and the past of Zenit
that the club from St. Petersburg parted with.
Even now we can say that in the next season the team of Dick Advocaat
will be not quite the same as the one that started the season 2008. Or
it will be absolutely different.
The main intrigue of the evening was how Andrei Arshavin would perform.
As everybody still remembers the story of Real new coach Ramos and Andrei
Arshavin.
But it was not certain till the very beginning of the match whether Andrei
appear on the pitch or not for he got high temperature ahead of the game.
Zenit side seemed to fail to cope with their holiday-expectant mood, and
to say the truth looked like whipping boys for Real especially in the
second half. [The first half was more or less equal, and after the first
goal Zenit had several scoring chances]. It is very sad but the score
could have been even bigger to the benefit of the hosts.
At the end Santiago Bernabeu gave a standing ovation to the hero of the
match - Raul Gonzalez and a bit of applause to Juando Ramos who started
his work in Real with an easy but effective win. And he was rather bewildered
who actually came to play his Royal Club. Was it the same Zenit that surprised
Europe and the same that fought Real in October?
If the yesterday's match drew a certain line in the history of Zenit,
it is disappointing that it happened this way. The team of Advocaat did
not deserve such a concluding chord in the season 2008.
Sport
Express Daily, 11 Dec 2008
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