Zenit St. Petersburg avoided elimination from the UEFA Champions League with a draw on Wednesday, but they’re hanging on by a thread. Thanks to two awful errors in the first 10 minutes of their match against Malaga, they were made to fight from two goals down to scrape a 2-2 draw.
Zenit St. Petersburg vs. Malaga: Final score 2-2, Zenit stay alive, but just barely
Early mistakes made Zenit’s job tough, but they fought back to keep themselves just barely alive in the UEFA Champions League.
The Zenit back line completely fell apart in the 8th minute, allowing Diego Buonanotte to score the opener. Sebastian Fernandez set up the goal, and Buonanotte displayed excellent skill to get the ball under control, find a shooting lane and beet Vyacheslav Malafeev. One minute later, Malafeev gave the ball away cheaply to Roque Santa Cruz, who located Fernandez for a simple second goal.
While the hosts played poorly for the remainder of the first half, they found a spark to start the second. Danny hit a fantastic shot past Willy in the 49th minute to bring his team back into the game, and they were on the front foot from then until the end of the match, but Zenit failed to take their chances.
It wasn’t until the 86th minute that the hosts were finally able to convert one of many scoring opportunities. After Danny inexplicably missed a tap-in from a yard out, he intelligently stayed inside the goal and out of play to avoid getting flagged for offside. The ball bounced out to Viktor Fayzulin, who hit a rocket into the net where Danny was standing, saving a point for his side.
Zenit must now hope for a draw or an Anderlecht win in the late Group C match. If AC Milan wins, they will be eliminated.
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