American defender Oguchi Onyewu stayed tethered to the bench the entire match.
A first-half header from Luuk De Jong, a second-half volley from Denny Landzaat and finally a second De Jong header made the difference on a night where Zenit had plenty of chances to take something from the game, but the Russians just couldn’t beat Nikolay Mihaylov in goal who was in blinding form for the Dutch.
An even start to proceedings saw both sides trying to get forward but neither were able to create openings. With five minutes played a corner for the Russians caused Twente problems, Alexei Ionov the wideman smashed a volley across goal with Danny on hand to steer the ball home but the Portuguese international was just offside.
Zenit were starting to apply some decent pressure in search of an away goal, however as Zenit advanced up the field Theo Janssen was allowed to find space behind Igor Denisov and hammered a low shot from 30-yards, flashing past the right post of Vyacheslav Malafeev.
Danny should have registered the first goal of the game shortly after his disallowed strike, the playmaker started a quick move himself and when his pass towards Alexei Ionov was cut out by Bart Buysse, a golden chance presented itself to Danny but his shot was too powerful and flew over the bar.
The Sino-Bele-Golubye magician continued to pull the strings in the visitors favor, forcing an alert Nikolay Mihaylov to rush off his line to deny Ionov stretching to poke the ball over the ‘keeper. Captain Aleksandr Anyukov was next to try his luck from distance, but the right-back’s ambitious attempt was easily claimed by Mihaylov.
Then Twente finally broke the deadlock against the run of play. The home side took full advantage of their first precise counter-attack after 25 minutes, Nacer Chadli’s deflected cross left Anyukov isolated with the taller Luuk De Jong and the Dutch forward leaped highest to power a header into the bottom corner.
The lead gave the hosts more confidence and they were spurred on by the home crowd who had fallen silent with Zenit’s good spell beforehand, but the Petrograders kept chasing a crucial away goal. Danko Lazovic spun Peter Wisgerhof with ease on the edge of the box but the central defender managed to drag himself back to make an important tackle. Roberto Rosales was the next to save Twente’s lead from Danny’s skyward volley, the full-back found himself in the right place to cover the goal-line with Mihaylov absent.
Luciano Spalletti’s men should have equalised on the stroke of half-time but again Zenit’s chances just weren’t going in. A free-kick drifted into the centre of the box found Bruno Alves in space but the defender got his header all wrong and missed the target six-yards from goal.
Twente had a excellent chance to double their lead at the start of the second period, Chadli pounces out a deflected clearance but the Belgian dragged his shot well wide. With ten minutes of the second-half gone they did however find their way past Malafeev for the second time. Fernando Meira unceremoniously brought down De Jong and the resulting free-kick dropped to Denny Landzaat and the midfielder volleyed into the corner with the aid of a deflection.
The disheartened Spalletti was almost lifted twice in the space of two minutes, Lazovic just out of reach both times from wide crosses. The Serbian however should have buried his third chance with an hour gone, a cross from Konstantin Zyryanov slipped through the defense but Lazovic’s first touch allowed the goalkeeper to smother the ball.
Again Mihaylov twice came to the rescue for his side, first denying Lazovic’s header with a super stop and the second with a slice of luck the ‘keeper landed on Viktor Fayzulin’s toe poke following a scrap in the box.
With time ticking away Zenit became desperate to grab an away goal to take back to the Petrovsky Stadium, Spalletti introduced the Aleksandr Kerzhakov returning from injury but Twente continued to frustrate their visitors and struck a vital third in stoppage time. Theo Janssen targeted the height of De Jong in the box and again the striker rose highest to seal the win for the Dutch.
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Twente 3-0 Zenit St. Petersburg: Oguchi Onyewu Bench-Ridden As Tukkers Take Vital Advantage