Zenit – Austira Vienna 01.10.2013

Both teams had lost in the fist round matches in the group stage of the Champions League. Zenit St. Petersburg lost 3:1 away to Atletico Madrid, while Austria Vienna lost 1:0 to Porto at home. That is why this match is extremelly important for both teams.

Zenit are on the leading position in the domestic league with only one defeat in the 11 matches. They have five consecutive victories in the last five rounds. Zenit had played efficiently and with 27 scored goals are the most efficient in the Russian Premier league. The midfielder Danny (8 goals) and the striker Hulk (5 goals) are the top goalscorers in the team.

Zenit played in the Champions league in the season 2012 but they didn’t pass the group stage.

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Austria Vienna are on the middle of the table in the domestic Bundesliga after they played with variable form. They have only four victories from the 10 matches. They were champions last year, but their current form is far away from champions. In the last round they lost to the last placed side Admira Wacker. Austria are handicapped for this match as the striker Marko Stankovic is injured. He is the top scorer in the team with 6 league goals.
Austria have 19 appearances in UEFA Champions League, but they same as Zenit didn’t pass the group stage. This match will be their first meting in the top European competition.

All this leads you to expect a home win. That may really be so, but I’d rather go for number of goals, since Austria can really be dangerous and score goals even when playing abroad. So for instance, they lost their home qualification game to Dinamo Zagreb (3:2), but won in Zagreb by 2:0. In spite of the reverse outcomes of those two games, and in spite of the fact that Austria won only one of them, they still scored 2 goals in each game.

According to the current form I think that Zenit are favorites on this match, but Austria can score on this match. I expect a high scoring match.