Dynamo Kyiv - Zenit St.Petersburg
Football: La Manga
Tuesday, 23rd February 2010. Kickoff 14:30

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Dynamo Kyiv

Valery Gazzaev gave priority to the match vs. Zenit St. Petersburg and fielded a highly experimental 11 against Lokomotiv Moscow yesterday. Thus a 2-0 defeat came as no surprise. Khacheridi and Magrao are unavailable in defense. The brazilian left back got injured during yesterday’s friendly. Bogush and Ghioane are training individually from the rest of the squad.

Who could have thought that Valery Gazzaev would not use his optimal line up in the highly anticipated fixture against Lokomotiv. However his decision to rest the big players suggests that they’re going to be used today. Magrao’s injury can be covered by veteran Nesmachniy, but he is hardly as productive at forward runs and set pieces at the Brazilian.

Expected formation and line up :
Dynamo Kyiv (4-2-3-1)
Shovkovsky
Eremenko,Yussuf,Almeida,Nesmachniy
Vukoevic,Ninkovic
Shevchenko,Milevsky,Yarmolenko
Kravets

Zenit St. Petersburg

Zenit gets ready to play their second exhibition game in Marbella. First fixture against Swedish side Orobre ended with a comfortable 2-0 victory. Luciano Spalletti praised the visible progress of his squad, so it seems 3 consecutive defeats at the previous training camp are left behind. Italian specialist has a full squad to choose from. The match will be broadcasted by St. Petersburg TV channel.

In a recent interview Spalletti said one of his main targets at this stage of preparation is to see some of the youth academy products in action. Striker Kannunikov has been the most impressive and notable figure amongst them. However first choice striker Alexandr Kerzhakov should start. Bystrov and Denisov were rested in the previous friendly, thus logically must also feature.

Spalletti is hardly familiar with today’s opponent or with their head coach Valery Gazzaev. This represents a minor disadvantage, in my opinion. Zenit has been conceding a lot of goals during pre-season games, some of them coming from really weak opponents.

However the strongest line up, which I am sure Spalletti will field, suggests St. Petersburg side will push forward and attack as long as they have the resources.

Expected formation and line up :
Zenit St. Petersburg (4-2-3-1)
Malafeev
Anyukov, Meira, Lombaerts,Hubocan
Denisov, Shirokov
Bystrov,Danny,Huszti
Kerzhakov

Betting advice

Both teams are not particularly concentrated at the back during friendly games. Russian side is especially poor in this compartment.

However Zenit’s star attacking line should eventually find the back of Dynamo’s net. Ukranian champions having rested their primary 11 vs. Lokomotiv yesterday – will be too much for Zenit’s shaky defense.

As the time this preview is posted - the bookies are not offering the lines for O/U. You can hit it on matchday closer to kick-off.

To make this preview valid,however, I'll also give the edge to Dynamo Kyiv.

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Dynamo Kyiv (0) @ 1.90 with Bet365 (main bet)

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take Over 2.50 goals @ 1.95 with Bet365