Football match Zenit St. Petersburg - FK Dinamo Minsk on August 16, 2018

The soccer match Zenit St. Petersburg - FK Dinamo Minsk was the second leg of the third qualifying round of the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League . It took place on August 16, 2018 at the Petrovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg . Zenit won the game 8-1 after extra time , making it the first club in a European competition to score eight goals in the second leg after being four goals behind in the first leg. Furthermore, Zenit was the only team that managed this feat outnumbered; because with a yellow-red card against Paredes in the 72nd minute, Zenit played with one man less for almost 50 minutes, including overtime.

In addition, Zenit was only the fifth team in a European competition to turn a four-goal deficit from the first leg. In the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League, which was newly introduced, Zenit was the first team to succeed, and Zenit was the first, even taking into account the previous UEFA Cup, in which only two teams were able to turn four goals behind from the first leg first team that did not benefit from the away goals rule . However, benefited 1984/85 of FK Partizan Belgrade against Queens Park Rangers (2: 6 and 4: 0 in the second round) and one season later, the old and new champions Real Madrid against Borussia Moenchengladbach (1: 5 and 4: 0 in the round of 16).

It was also the first time in the history of the European Cup that a team closed a four-goal deficit without an audience. Because of racist insults against Zenit fans in the last sixteen last season against Naby Keïta from RB Leipzig , Zenit was punished by UEFA with a ghost game . That is why the game did not take place in the 68,000-seat Saint Petersburg Stadium , but in the much smaller Petrovsky Stadium. This is located on an island surrounded by rivers and in order to be close to their team, some Zenit fans rented boats and cheered their team on from the water.

Match report

To advance to the next round, Zenit had to make up four goals after losing 4-0 in the first leg at Minsk Dinamo Stadium .

The only regular goal of the first half came in the 22nd minute after a free kick by Paredes to give Zenit a 1-0 lead, when the ball he kicked from the outside in the form of an arc lamp fell over the visibly surprised goalkeeper of Dinamo Minsk , Gorbunow, in the long corner of the gate he was guarding. A goal in the 30th minute to possibly equalize Dinamo Minsk was rightly denied recognition because Ivanov was offside . When Noboa scored 2-0 in the 66th minute with a tight long-range shot from around 25 meters into the corner of the goal, hopes for the “miracle of Saint Petersburg” arose again. They received a severe setback in the 72nd minute when Paredes was sent off with yellow and red . Unimpressed by this, Dzjuba scored two goals to make it 4-0 within the next six minutes, which equalized the 4-0 defeat in the first leg. Because there were no more hits in regular time , extra time went on , with only one hit in the first half. However, this was achieved by Yahaya in favor of Dinamo Minsk, which meant that the outnumbered team from Zenit needed two goals again to advance. These actually fell and “Matchwinner” Dsjuba was again significantly involved in both. Goalkeeper Gorbunow was only able to fend off his shot in the 109th minute at the feet of Driussi, who hit from five meters and six minutes later Dsjuba converted a penalty to 6: 1. In the stoppage time of extra time, the final decision was made by two more hits and a dismissal against Schwetsow from Dinamo Minsk.