Champions League 2012-13: FC Zenit St. Petersburg and FC Shakhtar Donetsk

Zenit St. Petersburg, Russia

UEFA Ranking: 24

Champions League participations: 2 (2008-09, 2011-12)- best result - 1/8 finals (2011-12)

Total transfer amount of all players: 146,4 mln €

The most expensive players:
Igor Denisov (20 mln €), Danny (18 mln €), Domenico Criscito (15 mln  €), Aleksandr Kerzhakov (14 mln €), Bruno Alves (11 mln) €, Nicolas Lombaerts (10 mln €), Aleksandr Anyukov (9 mln €), Tomas Hubocan (7,5 mln €).

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Shakhtar Donetsk, Ukraine

UEFA Ranking: 12

Champions League participations: 7 (2000-01, 2004-05, 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2010-11, 2011-12) - - best result  - quarterfinals (2010-11)

Total transfer amount of all players: 155,9 mln €

The most expensive players: Willian (20 mln €), Dario Srna (12 mln €), Fernandinho (12 mln €), Douglas Costa (12 mln €), Rakitsky (10 mln €), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (9 mln €), Andrij Pyatov (8 mln €), Marko Devic (8 mln €).

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Zenit and Shakhtar are the most powerful forces to challenge the capital-city-based clubs in their leagues. For the last period of time they have even been better than their rivals from Moscow or Kiev. This phenomenon sets up new national derbies of Zenit against Spartak or CSKA in Russia and Shakhtar against Dynamo in Ukraine. Zenit were the 2007, 2010 and 2011/2012 champions of the Russian Premier League. Donetsk has not given the crown away for the last three seasons. Their final standing has not been lower than the second place since 1996.

Both teams have been crowned UEFA Cup winners recently – the Russians in 2008 and the Ukrainians in 2009.

Zenit and Shakhtar mean too much for their cities not to have influential people among their supporters. Zenit has been controlled by Gazprom itself since 2005. In Shakhtar’s case it is the oligarch Rinat Ahmetov, who currently is the owner of the club. The casual fans of these clubs are not less famous in their countries. Zenit’s fans were close to set a new record two weeks ago, when their team crashed rivals Spartak Moscow 5:0. The Decibel level at the stadium reached 125 points, which is almost the same as of a Boeing 747 roar.

Shakhtar fans are not worse. Their matches are attended by 20000 fans on average, which is an impressive result, taking into consideration the fact that Dynamo Kyiv’s home stadium has got a capacity of 70500. The Donetsk team got their new stadium called Donbas Arena (50149) only 3 years ago.

Zenit's home ground is called Petrovsky (21,570). Gazprom Arena with a capacity of 62000 people is on its way.

A Zenit Profile: Vyacheslav Malafeev has gradually moved towards becoming the spirit of Zenit. The final step towards this has been the captain armband, which he received this year. Having spent his entire career in the St. Petersburg club, Malafeev, now 33, has always been considered as one of the best goalkeepers in Russia, but only recently become the number one choice for the Russian national team.

In March 2011 Vyacheslav, a father for two, tragically lost his wife, but decided to find consolation in football. He gave every piece of him to the game and got the reward. Malafeev showed some heroic performance in the Champions League last year, to send his team further to the knock out stage. His role in winning the Russian League Winner’s title is under no doubt. He was chosen to defend the Russian goal at Euro 2012. There is no doubt this great goalkeeper will still shine for some years to come. At least this year he will be one of the best goalkeepers in the Champions League.

     

Shakhtar Profile: Henrikh Mkhitaryan is another great player, whose football career has been related to a family tragedy. After losing his father Hamlet Mkhitaryan at the age of 7, Henikh had no other choice than climbing the football heights his father, a prominent Armenian striker of 1980-90s, didn’t manage to achieve.

By the age of 23 Henrikh has already succeeded in becoming 4-time champions of Armenia, 2-time champions of Ukraine, captain of Ukrainian club Metalurh only 363 days after his debut for the club, top goalscorer of Euro 2012 Qualifying Group B, best player of Shakhtar 2011-12, best Armenian player 2009 and 2011. The season has just started in Ukraine and Henrikh is the topscorer of the league with 10 goals in 6 matches. Impressive? Everything is just starting for this big talent of a European caliber. Don’t forget to check him out.

Zenit coach: Luciano Spaletti is one of the biggest fans of zonal marking. A confident set of 4 on-form defenders and a very crowded midfield is what Zenit’s tactics is built on. Attacks develop in the flanks and anybody can appear in the central striker’s role. Spaletti’s bench is long enough to survive a long season with 3 tournaments.    

Zenit tactics: 4-2-3-1, 4-3-2-1 or 4-6-0: Malafeev - Anyukov, Hubocan, Criscito (Lombaerts), Bruno Alves, (Lukovic)- Denisov, Zyryanov (Semak), Shirokov, Fayzulin (Bystrov), Danny – Kerzhakov (Kanunnikov, Djordjevic).

Shakhtar coach: Mircea Lucescu; the reason why Mkhitaryan scores so many goals is that Jadson left the club this summer, leaving his place of an attacking midfielder to the young Armenian, who is perfect in finding free spaces and quickly moving there as the super-attackers Willian, Devic or Eduardo do everything to get marked. 

Shakhtar tactics: 4-2-3-1: Pyatov - Srna, Rakitskiy, Chygrynskiy, Rat – Fernandinho, Hubschman-Willian (Costa), Mkhitaryan, Teixeira – Devic (Eduardo).