Gazprom Arena
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Where this ground now stands, the old Kirov Stadium used to be — Kisho Kurokawa's replacement took the better part of a decade to finish, passing through three different general contractors before Zenit finally played their first match there against Ural in April 2017. For most of that decade nobody could agree on a name either: Zenit Arena, Piter Arena, officially just "Saint Petersburg" on the paperwork. The Gazprom Arena name only stuck once the ground was formally handed over to the club in December 2018. The pitch changed too. A natural lawn at opening gave way to a hybrid surface ahead of the 2018 World Cup, for which the stadium hosted seven matches, including the semi-final between France and Belgium. It had already staged the Confederations Cup final the year before, and Euro 2020 added seven more fixtures, among them Switzerland's quarter-final win over Spain. One fixture never happened. UEFA had pencilled the ground in to host the 2022 Champions League final, then moved it to the Stade de France in February that year over the war in Ukraine. The record crowd here belongs to ice hockey, not football — 71,381 turned out for a Channel One Cup match against Finland in December 2018, still cited as a record for the sport in Russia. Outside the football calendar, the arena also fills for touring acts such as Basta and Zivert.
Who plays here
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Zenit Saint Petersburg
179 matches
Recent matches here
| Date | Match | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 16 Aug | Zenit Saint Petersburg — Dinamo Moscow | 3:0 |
| 9 Aug | Zenit Saint Petersburg — Rodina Moskva | 1:2 |
| 5 Aug | Zenit Saint Petersburg — Baltika | 1:0 |
| 18 Jul | Zenit Saint Petersburg — Spartak Moscow | 1:1 |
| 13 Jul | Zenit Saint Petersburg — Makhachkala | 1:1 |
| 12 Jul | Zenit Saint Petersburg — FK Crvena zvezda | 3:1 |
| 8 Jul | Zenit Saint Petersburg — Neftchi | 4:1 |
| 5 Jul | Zenit Saint Petersburg — Gimnasia La Plata | 1:1 |