Maccabi took a 3:0 lead on a brace by Haris Medunjanin and Vidar Kjartansson’s first goal as a member of the Yellow & Blue but Zenit stormed back with four unanswered goals against a ten-man home side as Maccabi fell 3:4 on Matchday One of the Europa League.
Pre-Match
For his first ever match as a Head Coach in the Europa League, Shota Arveladze had Predrag Rajikovic in goal with a defensive quartet of Eli Dasa, Tal Ben Haim, Egor Filipenko and Omri Ben Harush in front of him. Captain Gal Alberman was back in the lineup in his usual defensive midfielder position with Nosa Igiebor and Haris Medunjanin beside him as an attacking trio of Yossi Benayoun, Tal Ben Chaim and Vidar Kjartansson provided the offense.
Available on the bench for the Georgian boss was keeper Daniel Lifshitz, Oscar Scarione, Eden Ben Basat, Barak Itzhaki, Dor Micha, Eyal Golasa and Dor Peretz.
First Half
Omri Ben Harush tried to get the home side on the board first but his 5th minute attempt from outside of the box went off of a Zenit defender and out for an ensuing corner kick. Three minutes later, Axel Witsel’s header off of a free kick almost found its way behind Rajikovic but the Serbian shot stopper made a quick save.
In the 13th minute, Zenit passed the ball around the pitch and into the box where Ben Haim cleared it to Witsel, but his chance was collected by Rajikovic to keep the match goalless. Three minutes later, Ben Chaim received a nice pass from Alberman but his short range effort just bounced off of the left post. Ben Haim, who already had made a couple of quality defensive plays cleared the ball away yet again leading to a yellow card being issued to Zenit’s number 9 Aleksandr Kokorin in the 20th minute.
Finally, after 26 minutes of play Maccabi got on the board first. Medunjanin swung the ball into the box from long range on the right side of the pitch towards a leaping Benayoun but number 51 just missed heading the ball that found its way into the goal anyways giving the Yellow & Blue a 1:0 lead. Ten minutes later Medunajnin tried his luck from the left side with a scorcher of an effort but the ball just sailed over the goal as Maccabi took a slim 1:0 advantage into the break.
Second Half
It didn’t take the Yellow & Blue long to add an insurance marker as Tal Ben Chaim lifted a perfect pinpoint ball to Kjartansson in the box that the Icelandic striker easily headed home behind the Zenit keeper for a 2:0 lead in the 50th minute.
Following a 57th minute yellow card to Zenit captain Javi Garcia, Witsel tried his luck from 16 meters out that just whipped by the post and then received a yellow card two minutes later for a reckless tackle. The visitors may have hoped that Maccabi would sit on the two goal lead, but that wasn’t the case as Medunjanin struck again for the Yellow & Blue.
This time the Bosnian midfielder lined up a perfect free kick from the right side of the goal and beat Zenit keeper Lodygin for a 3:0 lead. Four minutes later, Eden Ben Basat came on for the second goal scorer Vidar Kjartansson, however, Zenit pulled one back three minutes after that to give the Russian side life late in the contest.
Coach Arveladze made his second substitute of the evening as he brought on Dor Micha for Benayoun but that didn’t stop what happened next.
Dasa picked up his second yellow card and was ousted from the game with a red card as Mauricio who came on earlier scored on a free kick in the box to get Zenit to within one goal, 3:2.
After Maccabi’s third substitution with Dor Peretz joining the fray for Ben Chaim the unthinkable happened; St. Petersburg drew even at 3:3 as Giuliano tapped home the ball. And then to add insult to injury, Djordjevic scored two minutes into injury time to defeat Maccabi 4:3 in an unbelievable turn of events at the Netanya Stadium.
