Zenit is preparing for the match with the Norwegians in in full force. Rosenborg's flank forward Jann-Erik de Lanle is injured. There are no disqualified people. We predict the lineups and consider the confrontations between the players of the teams of Roberto Mancini and Kore Ingebrigtsen.
Andrey Lunev - Andre Hansen - 1:0
Zenit has an advantage in the goalkeeping line: Lunev is generally more reliable than 27-year-old Hansen. In this Europa League in particular, the Rosenborg goalkeeper has conceded goals after making poor saves, and at times he has been overconfident and taken risks with his feet. Hansen has good statistics (4.8 shots on target per goal), but Lunev’s figures are higher in both the League of Legends and the RFPL. By the way, in the qualifying round for the 2018 World Cup, a candidate for the Norwegian national team was included in the squad for matches five times national team, but never entered the field.
Branislav Ivanovic - Vegar-Eggen Hedenstad - 2:0
There is no limit on foreign players in the Europa League, and Mancini will apparently give practice again a large number foreigners, will repeat the “basis” from the match with Real Sociedad. However, it is possible that the coach will decide to rest Ivanovich before the game with CSKA, and Igor Smolnikov will appear on the right from the first minutes. Hedenstad, 26, is an attacking full-back who can cut in forward and deliver a dangerous cross. At the same time, he is Rosenborg's leader in tackles in the championship (2.4 on average per 90 minutes).
Emanuel Mammana - Tore Reginiussen - 3:0
Mammana’s absence from the match against Arsenal Tula was unlikely to be related to his mistakes against Anzhi; most likely, it had to do with the defender’s flight to Argentina and back. Emanuel will return to the “first team” in order to neutralize ex-London Arsenal player Bendtner together with Mevlei. 31-year-old Reginiussen is absolutely the best in Rosenborg in terms of clearances (7.7) and interceptions (2.4). However, with Zenit’s high-speed attacks, it will be difficult for him to keep up with his opponents.
Miha Mevlja - Jorgen Shelvik - 4:1
The performance of the newest newcomer to the blue-white-blue Mevli leaves a mixed impression so far. Both at Zenit and in matches for the Slovenian national team, against the backdrop of an overall confident game, he makes at least one serious mistake, leading to a scoring chance or a missed goal, which reminds Luis Neto. The 26-year-old Shelvik excels at positioning but can get confused under pressure. It is possible that Johan Bjerdahl or Jakob Rasmussen will play in the center of the visitors' defense instead.
Domenico Criscito - Birger Mehling - 5:1
The Zenit captain must show by example that the bad match with Arsenal was an accident, wake up his teammates and make the team angry. Crishito is no less to blame for the Tula goal than the Ivanovich-Mevlya pair, since he allowed the pass to Kirill Kombarov to pass through. Meling is a sharp, fast, aggressive defender. At the same time, the 22-year-old player still noticeably lacks experience, he often loses position, leaves freedom to the opponent and makes mistakes when working with the ball.
Mathias Kranevitter - Morten Konradsen - 6:1
In order for Zenit to have an effective center field, they need a midfielder with a good medium and long pass next to the Argentine defensive midfielder. Christian Noboa may appear in the hosts' lineup for this game, but it will not be surprising if the Ecuadorian comes in instead of Kranevitter himself. 27-year-old Konradsen is capable of playing in any position in Rosenborg's center three. In any case, this is a football player with a lot of work, aimed at tackling the ball.
Leandro Paredes - Mike Jensen - 7:2
To open the Rosenborg defense, it is necessary that the ball, after passing it to Zenit, is quickly delivered forward to the attackers - behind the backs of the tall stoppers. The main hope here is in Paredes, whose “radio-controlled” passes will be awaited by Kokorin and Driussi, as well as the speedy Rigoni. Dane Jensen is one of the key figures in the ranks of Rosenborg. The 29-year-old Norwegian captain is great on the ball and is quite agile and unyielding for a player who plays the role of a playmaker.
Daler Kuzyaev - Anders Tronnsen - 8:3
Kuzyaev played for more than an hour against Arsenal, although Stanislav Cherchesov said that the Zenit midfielder played for the Russian national team due to the injury. If Kuzyaev does not get into the starting lineup at Rosenborg, Oleg Shatov or Yuri Zhirkov will appear on the left. The Norwegian coach, in turn, chooses between 22-year-old Tronnsen and 23-year-old Marius Lundema. These are also very efficient players, like Konradsen, trying to provide quality tackles and retain the ball.
Emiliano Rigoni - Milan Jevtovic - 9:3
Rigoni's speed will clash with the speed of left-back Meling - we are anticipating an extremely interesting confrontation between fast players on this flank. However, the “two-legged” Rigoni can take a place on the left side: it all depends on Mancini’s tactical decisions. The 24-year-old Serbian Jevtovic seemed more of a runner than a creative wing forward, nor did he seem to have any tricky dribbling ability. Perhaps he will be replaced by Paul-Andre Helland, who is sharper and more effective in the championship.
Sebastian Driussi - Samuel Adegbenro - 10:4
We continue to look forward to Driussi taking the next step in his progress, improving his execution and scoring as often in Europe as he did in Argentina. Driussi's chances of playing against Rosenborg are perhaps higher than those of Dmitry Poloz and Artem Dzyuba, especially if Mancini does not change 4-4-2 to 4-3-3. Adegbenro is a fast forward who likes to dribble and attack the goal on his own. The 21-year-old Nigerian was remembered for his brace against Ajax, so he needs an eye and an eye.
Alexander Kokorin - Niklas Bendtner - 11:5
In the last three matches of the Europa League, Kokorin scored a double, and, of course, the guests are primarily afraid of him. It’s intriguing how the Zenit player and top scorer Rosenborg (15 goals in the championship) Bendtner. Kokorin’s story with champagne is nothing compared to the scandals that the Dane nicknamed Lord got into while drunk. However, at Rosenborg, 29-year-old Bendtner is good, he works hard for the team, hangs on to the ball, makes smart passes and scores.
Roberto Mancini - Kore Ingebrigtsen - 12:5
Rosenborg is one step away from winning gold in the national championship, so Ingebrigtsen has the opportunity to concentrate 100% on the Europa League. The Norwegians play 4-3-3 under him, and they are unlikely to deviate from their usual formation in the match with Zenit. If the opponent is surprised by anything, it will be a tricky corner kick. Ingebrigtsen does not have the same titles as Mancini, but he is nevertheless quite an experienced specialist.
"Zenit" - "Rosenborg"
Stadium:"Saint Petersburg"
Start of the match: 20:00
Arbitrator: Tobia Stiller (Germany)
St. Petersburg "Zenith" confidently won two opening matches at group stage Europa League and now the first round of the confrontation with Rosenborg awaits him. Successful games against the Norwegians will allow the St. Petersburg team to advance to the playoffs early and have the opportunity to rotate the squad, because although Zenit is in the lead in the national championship, it still misfires, allowing its competitors to get within arm's length.
Many are already crowning Zenit, saying that they will certainly win gold medals, nodding at unstable competitors who cannot impose a fight on the St. Petersburg team. Mancini's team really has best composition, the players of the Russian national team are sitting on the bench, who would strengthen any RFPL club, however, it is impossible to go through the tournament path without losses. After a brisk start, Zenit began to lose points more and more often, and it became more difficult for the St. Petersburg team to break into the defense of teams that spent the entire 90 minutes in their own penalty area, counting on one counterattack.
Anzhi punished Zenit twice, but still missed out on victory last minutes, “Arsenal” did not repeat this mistake, inflicting the first defeat on Mancini’s team in the RFPL. All losses of Zenit points are games against outsiders or middle peasants. Tula "Arsenal", "Anji", "Dynamo", "Ural" and "Rostov" - all these teams closed in their own penalty area. Zenit also lost to the FNL team in the Russian Cup. On strong teams the mood is completely different, so there is hope that in the Europa League, the St. Petersburg team will be able to show a high-level game.
Rosenborg is a strong European team that celebrates its centenary this year. Current champion of Norway. He started his European Cup journey this season from the second qualifying round Champions League, where they beat Irish Dundalk, but then lost to Celtic and were relegated to the Europa League. There, the draw brought the Norwegians together with the finalist of the last tournament, Ajax, whom the “little trolls” (as Rosenborg is called) beat twice (1:0 and 3:2). At the group stage, the team was first defeated by Real Sociedad, and then beat Vardar, now it has three points and third place.
Most famous player- Niklas Bendtner, who has traveled extensively throughout Europe. In addition to Arsenal, he played for Birmingham, Sunderland, Juventus, Wolfsburg, and came to Norway from Nottingham Forrest. At Rosenborg, the Dane revived his career; in 24 league matches he scored 15 goals, and he also scored twice in the Europa League.
Interesting facts confrontations:
The teams previously played each other in the 1/16 finals of the UEFA Cup on 05/06, Zenit won both matches (2:1 and 2:0)
Rosenborg always scored in Russia, but always lost (2:1 to Zenit, 5:1 to Dynamo in 1992 and 4:1 to Spartak in 1995). In six games against Russian teams They managed to win only once (against Dynamo), but the Muscovites advanced further on aggregate.
Zenit, in addition to Rosenborg, met with the Norwegian Valerenga in 1985. Both matches were won with a score of 2:0.
Oleg Shatov can play his 50th match in European competition.
Approximate compositions:
"Zenith": Lunev, Mevlya, Ivanovich, Mammana, Crishito, Paredes, Kranevitter, Kuzyaev, Rigoni, Driusi, Kokorin.
"Rosenborg": Hansen, Hedenstad, Meling, Reginiussen, Jensen, Konradsen, Bendtner, de Lanlay Shelvik, Lundemo, Adegbenro.
Match forecast
Zenit is the favorite in the match, the St. Petersburg team must confidently beat their opponent and take a step towards the playoffs. Bookmakers offer odds of 1.30 for a Zenit win, 5.80 for a draw, and 10.00 for Rosenborg.
Vyacheslav Gorbachev
Two weeks have passed since the teams' first match, in which Zenit confidently beat Rosenborg (3:0). After the match with the Norwegians, the St. Petersburg team has not won yet; moreover, they lost their lead in the championship, losing heavily to Lokomotiv in the home match (0:3). Now we can say with confidence that Zenit is in crisis. The match against Rosenborg could be a lifeline for Mancini, which will help pull the team out of this situation, because reaching the European Cup spring can wake up anyone.
The Norwegian team will try to surprise Russian club, because in the first match it was not possible to do this. Rosenborg absolutely needs to defeat the St. Petersburg team in order to maintain its chances of qualifying from the group. In the Norwegian Championship, Rosenborg is doing fine. Three rounds before the end of the championship, they are leading by eight points, and can direct all their strength to today's match.
Starting lineups Rosenborg - Zenit
Rosenborg's two main players, midfielder Andres Konradsen, and attacking midfielder Jann-Erik de Lanlay, are forced to miss the match against Zenit.
Daler Kuzyaev did not fly to Norway with the team. The player was injured in the match against Lokomotiv. This loss will be the only one for Mancini, and Paredes will appear in the center of the field instead of Kuzyaev.
The problems of the St. Petersburg team are more related to problems in attack. In the Russian Championship, Zenit has been unable to keep a clean sheet on its opponents' goals for three matches in a row.
Rosenborg:
Hansen - Hendenstad, Reginiussen, Skjelvik, Meling - Jensen, Luendemo, Trondsen - Zhevtovic, Bendtner, Adegbenro.
"Zenith":
Lunev - Smolnikov, Mevlya, Mammana, Crishito - Kraneviter, Paredes, Erokhin - Rigoni, Kokorin, Driussi.
Forecast for the match Rosenborg - Zenit
Most likely, the fate of the match will be decided by one goal scored. Rosenborg must take control of the game and try to score an early goal.
Bookmakers see Zenit as the favorite in the match, whose victory is quoted with odds 2,00 . The victory of Rosenborg is estimated by the coefficient 4,00 , and a draw - 3,60 .
Bookmakers have different views on the number of goals scored in the match, so the odds for the total match total are almost equal. The probability that teams will be able to score more than 2.5 goals in a match is estimated by the coefficient 1,85 , less than 2.5 goals – 1,95 .
Considering not very good shape St. Petersburg and the practically solved task of leaving the group, we can assume that Zenit will not be very active. Forecast for the fight from the editors of the site
So, on Thursday evening the Europa League returns, and we will have a match between Zenit and the Norwegian Rosenborg.
The upcoming match, I think, is of great strategic importance for the St. Petersburg team. “Zenith” needs to take three points in this meeting in order to almost certainly guarantee itself a ticket to the playoffs of the tournament, which in the future will allow it to feel more confident in the domestic championship, where Mancini’s team has recently had difficulties.
“Zenith” loses points in two games in a row, and if first there was an away draw 2:2 with “Anzhi”, then followed by a terrible home defeat from “Arsenal”, the reasons for which we tried to consider in this article.
Zenit does not have any margin of safety or any tangible advantage over its pursuers, and therefore the team needs to quickly solve its problems in the Europa League in order to fully concentrate on the domestic arena.
I would like to believe that Roberto Mancini also adheres to this opinion, and therefore in the match with the Norwegians he will certainly field his main squad and abandon adventurous experiments with the lineup, which have already cost the “blue-white-blue” several lost points in the RFPL.
First of all, I am looking forward to the return of Paredes, who was the team leader at the start of the season, but then ended up in the reserves. First because of injury, and then, apparently, because of the coaching decisions of Mancini, who for some reason decided that Leandro was not an unconditional member of the core, but a rotation player. It seems that Matthias Kranevitter is more suitable for this role, whose football is still quite unconvincing and unstable - the defensive midfielder alternates between bright matches and downright disastrous ones.
In addition, I would like to see Rigoni in action from the first minutes, who is also still used by Mancini only occasionally. Meanwhile, in those matches in which Emiliano was a starter, he looked very, very good and even scored important goals - as was the case in the match against Real Sociedad.
In general, Mancini will most likely again have no choice but to release an almost entirely foreign squad, sprinkled with only a couple of Russians. Lunev, Kuzyaev and Kokorin. All other performers with a domestic passport are still extremely controversial, and therefore trusting them with a place from the first minutes in a game where you need to take three points and nothing else is not the best idea.
What can you say about Zenit's rival, Rosenborg? This team is now a confident leader in the Norwegian Championship, and 5 rounds before the end of the season has a 10-point advantage over its closest pursuer. Simply put, Rosenborg already has the title in their pocket.
In Norway, Rosenborg has not known defeat since August 20, when it unexpectedly lost 0:1 at home to Haugesund. At the same time, Rosenborg won 3 of the last 4 matches in the Norwegian league with a score of 3:0, and in another match there was again a rather unexpected draw at home 1:1 with Sarpsborg. Such unpredictable results suggest that Rosenborg is, to some extent, a mood team. On her day, she likes to take out her opponents, but at the same time, if things are not going well, then at least take out the saints. And in some ways this, you see, is similar to Zenit, which this season, if it fails, fails miserably - home defeats 0:1 from Bnei Yehuda and Arsenal are evidence of this.
In the Europa League, things are also mixed for Rosenborg. In the first round, the Norwegians were beaten 4:0 by Real Sociedad in Spain. And then at home they beat Vardar 3:1. Although this last match, of course, is not an indicator due to the frankly low level of the Macedonian team. So the real test, which can confirm Rosenborg's claims to qualify for the playoffs, awaits the Norwegian team on Thursday in St. Petersburg. And Zenit needs to be prepared for the fact that the opponent will treat this meeting as if it were their last fight.
Approximate compositions.
