Fakel Voronezh and Zenit Saint Petersburg met at Fakel Stadium in the Premier League's regular season round six, and the visitors took all three points with a 1-0 win. The match ended with a penalty goal from A. Sobolev in the 90th minute, a result that kept Zenit in third place while Fakel remain rooted at the bottom of the table.
By then the game had already taken its shape. A yellow card for B. Magomedov in the 20th minute showed the early tension, and both sides made several changes as the match wore on. Zenit brought on Luiz Henrique late, while Fakel shuffled their attack with substitutions for I. Alshin, Jhon Jhon, R. Vega, Felipe Augusto, A. Sutormin, A. Gnapi Dable, W. Barrios, B. Magomedov and D. Todorovic.
And here's the thing about the statistics — Zenit had 70 per cent possession, 17 key passes and 2.18 expected goals, yet only found the net once. Fakel managed just five shots on target and 0.34 expected goals, but they stayed in the game long enough to make it a contest. The visitors had 24 successful dribbles and 311 passes into the opposition half, while Fakel relied on 37 clearances and 16 tackles to keep things tight.
To be fair, the turning point came when I. Diveev received a red card in the 85th minute, and then N. Giorgobiani picked up a second yellow just two minutes later. The double dismissal left Zenit with a numerical advantage, and Sobolev made no mistake from the spot when it mattered. The old head settled them down in the end, even if the earlier phases had been scrappy.
The result moves Zenit to 12 points from six games, still four behind the leaders but with a game in hand on the teams above. Fakel stay on two points at the foot of the table, having now lost four of six matches and drawn twice. The gap at the bottom is not much, but the pattern is clear — one mistake ends it for them.
