Walking high

Is difficult for home team to combine both the domestic league and their European obligations, so they are tired from all these games and the travelling. In the previous round, they were defeated 3-0 from Dynamo Moscow in an away game, where they conceded all the goals in the second half. Actually, they didn't threat their opponents at all. In the middle of the week, they were defeated 1-0 from Rangers in Scotland at the first match of Europa league play-offs. Their opponents performed better than them and the final score could be even bigger, if home team hadn't lost so many chances. As the second game takes place in their home, they hope to make the overturn and gain their participation in the group stage of the tournament.

After the amazing overturn in the previous qualification round of Europa League and the 8-1 win against Dynamo Minsk, Zenit are in a high flying mood and they continued with two wins in the previous week. 4-1 against Ural, despite the fact that Zenit conceded the first goal of the game. With this result they made the 4 out of 4 in the Russian Premier League, and stayed on the top of the table. Then, in the middle of the week, they won 3-1 Molde in the first match of Europa League play-offs making an important qualification step this way. They were again the team that conceded the first goal ot the match, but they overturned the outcome once again.

On the one hand, home team have neither the experience nor the squad to handle both the domestic and the European obligations and on the other hand, Zenit haven't stop winning, scoring quite easily. Host team are the favorites and they can get an easy three pointer.