Juventus led Group H after a full pot in the opening two matches before Wednesday’s Champions League round. The Italians had defeated Malmö FF and Chelsea – and on Wednesday, Zenit Saint Petersburg waited away in the third match. Zenit, in turn, was in third place after defeating Malmö FF at home last time.
But it was not an exuberant event at Gazprom Arena. The first half contained almost only a real goal chance and that was when Zenit’s brasse Claudinho pulled from a distance in the 18th minute, but Juventus goalkeeper Wojiech Szczesny managed to parry the shot.
0-0 stood at half time and in the beginning of the second half, Juventus was the first to create the first goal chance. American Weston McKennie got a pass in Zenit’s penalty area and came to a finish against the right post. But Stanislav Kritsyuk in the Zenit goal stood for a fine save.
With the hour played, Dejan Kuluseveski finally got to enter the field. The Swede stepped in at the same time as Federico Bernadeschi had to step down – and Juventus would receive a dividend from that change. With only three minutes left to play, in the 87th minute, Kulusevski appeared on a post from fullback Mattia Di Sciglio and nodded in 1-0 via the post. The goal was the Swede’s first in the Champions League ever.
It later became the only goal of the match and Kulusevski became a great Juventus hero from the bench with his first Champions League goal ever. The Italians are still group top with a full pot after three rounds, nine points in three games. Zenit, in turn, remains third in the group after Malmö lost big against Chelsea in London with 4-0.
Startelvor:
Zenit: Kritsyuk – Karavaev, Christiakov, Lovren, Rakitskyy – Wendel, Barrios, Douglas Santos – Malcom, Dzyuba, Claudinho.
Juventus: Szczesny – De Sciglio, Bonucci, de Ligt, Alex Sandro – Locatelli, Bentancur, McKennie – Chiesa, Morata, Bernadeschi.
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