📊 Form Guide
Sochi LLLLDW
Sochi will be looking for a repeat result of the 2-1 Premier League success vs Nizhny Novgorod.
In that game, Sochi had 46% possession and 9 shots at goal with 3 of them on target. For Sochi, the goalscorers were Vladimir Iljin (35') and Ignacio Saavedra (55'). At the other end, Pari Nizhny Novgorod had 13 attempts at goal with 6 on target. Juan Manuel Boselli (48') was the scorer for Nizhny Novgorod.
It’s not been often in recent times that Sochi haven’t conceded. It will be a concern for them that Sochi have failed to prevent opponents from scoring in 5 of their previous 6 matches, shipping 10 goals during that time. We shall soon see if that trend will end up being sustained in this game.
Going into this contest, Sochi have not emerged victorious against Zenit St Petersburg in their last 5 league games.
Zenit St Petersburg WWDWWD 📈
In their previous fixture, Zenit St Petersburg drew 1-1 in the Premier League tie with Akron Tolyatti.
In that game, Zenit St Petersburg had 66% possession and 14 attempts on goal with 1 on target. The only player on the scoresheet for Zenit St Petersburg was Henrique (11'). Akron Tolyatti had 8 shots at goal with 1 on target. Edgar Sevikyan (36') scored for Akron Tolyatti.
A sequence of effective showings from the Zenit St Petersburg defence has resulted in the number of goals they’ve conceded standing at 3 from their last 6 fixtures overall. In that period, the number of goals that they have scored themselves is 14.
Coming into this meeting, Zenit St Petersburg are undefeated in their previous 4 away league matches.
👥 Head to head
Looking at their prior head-to-head clashes going back to 03/10/2021 shows us that Sochi have won 1 of them and Zenit St Petersburg 3, with the tally of drawn matches standing at 2.
A combined total of 17 goals were produced between them in this period, with 3 for Belo-sinie and 14 created by Sine-Belo-Golubye. The average number of goals per game works out to 2.83.
The previous league match featuring the two was Premier League match day 16 on 25/11/2023 when the final score was Zenit St Petersburg 3-0 Sochi.
That day, Zenit St Petersburg managed 64% possession and 13 attempts at goal with 6 of them on target. The goals were scored by Rodrigão (45'), Wilson Isidor (58') and Andrei Mostovoy (89').
On the other side, Sochi had 3 shots at goal with 1 on target.
The match was refereed by Kirill Levnikov.
📋 Team News: Sochi
The Sochi boss Igor Osinkin will be happy not to have any fitness worries at all coming into this clash thanks to a fully injury-free group to choose from.
It’s our opinion that Belo-sinie look set to kick off with a 4-4-2 formation for this one and select Yuriy Dyupin, Sergey Volkov, A. Soldatenkov, Nemanja Stojic, Yahia Attiyat Allah, Roman Ezhov, Ignacio Saavedra, Maksim Mukhin, Anton Zinkovskiy, François Kamano and Vladimir Ilyin.
📋 Team News: Zenit St Petersburg
With a completely injury-free squad ready to go, the Zenit St Petersburg boss Sergei Semak has no fitness concerns to speak of before this clash.
We’re of the thinking that Sine-Belo-Golubye might make use of a 4-2-3-1 system, going with Denis Adamov, Gustavo Mantuan, Nino, Strahinja Erakovic, Douglas Santos, Wilmar Barrios, Wendel, Maksim Glushenkov, Pedro, Luiz Henrique and Mateo Cassierra.
💭 Prediction
In this match, Sochi should get enough chances to score against this Zenit St Petersburg lineup, but a single goal probably won’t quite be good enough.
We therefore reckon that it will be a very close game with a 1-2 winning score for Zenit St Petersburg by the conclusion of the game. Should be a good one.