Everything that could go wrong for Zenit has gone wrong before the start in the relished Champions League.

Before the biggest test in this group stage away to Chelsea at the packed, ready to erupt Stamford Bridge Zenit have lost one of their important central defenders - Lovren. It would be an exaggeration to say he’s been flawless in the Zenit shirt, in fact, I’d not go against the truth to call him error-prone and playing below expectations, however, his loss is definitely a problem for the Russian Champion. On top of that the club’s also short of first choice right fullback Karavaev, who got injured on duty for the Russian National Team.

The replacement options are not looking too promising for Zenit, particularly on the right wing of defense. It will either be natural attacking winger Sutormin, whose defensive skills are below par; or another out of position option centre-mid Kuzyaev.

Chistyakov, who is expected to step in for injured Lovren next to Rakitskiy, despite being 27 years old has never (!) played in any European Cups, let alone Champions League. Imagine the magnitude of pressure he will experience being thrown to contain Lukaku.

The third and fourth potential issues for visitors is the situation with goalkeepers and around their only proper defensive midfielder Barrios.

Zenit had brought in keeper Stanislav Kritsyuk back to Russia from modest mid-table Liga NOS side Gil Vicente. What surprised most was his assignment into the starting line-up from the get-go. He made the debut at the weekend vs. Akhmat, did not impress and left many people wondering in what aspect is he better than current goalkeeper Kerzhakov. From my experience, such rotation moves before something big as a Champions League match are risky and often lead to chaos at the back. If the manager does opt for Krytsyuk, I can’t understand how will he send marching orders to the defenders whom he’s been seeing for less than 2 weeks.

Finally, Colombian international Barrios, Zenit’s only ball-winning centre-mid, has had a soap-opera adventure on the way back from his National Team. He made it back to Russia only on Saturday, having naturally missed the Akhmat 3-1 win. Then he stayed in Moscow until Monday late evening waiting to get a British Visa. The manager literally hopes Barrios makes the flight on Tuesday, on the day of the match, and eventually faces Chelsea the same evening. Not the sort of preparation you’d want to have for one of your cornerstone players.

I’ve put so much emphasis on Zenit’s problems, that to make the preview less tiring to read and process, I will briefly review Chelsea, who have become an absolute machine under Tuchel. They’ve brought their gameplay to another level with the signing of Romelu Lukaku from Chelsea. All the frustrations of last season, when the team could be wasting chance after chance after chance “thanks” to Werner at the edge of attack, are no longer relevant. Lukaku is like a cherry at the top of a cake, a perfect finisher for a free flowing, creative side like Chelsea.

Hosts smashed a decent Aston Villa (3-0) at the weekend unnoticing the international break, which had a lot of their players involved.

Return of their faithful fans to the Stamford Bridge stadium still feels like a special occasion every time they hold a home match, so with the Champions League hymn also coming back has to take it stand out even more.

I have close to 0% doubt Chelsea is going to take a win tonight against this defensively wrecked Zenit team. The only thing that could get in the way is Tuchel team becoming too complacent and careless once in the lead and starting to look ahead towards the game on September 19th against Tottenham. Other than that, I am full of confidence for Zenit to collapse tonight and add to Russian clubs misery in European Cups. In season 2020/21 Russian representatives managed to get only 1 win during the group stages of Europa League and Champions League respectively.

在令人津津乐道的欧冠联赛开始之前，泽尼特出现了混乱。

在本轮小组赛最大考验之前客场对阵切尔西，球场将会座无虚席，泽尼特已经失去了他们重要的中后卫之一——洛夫伦。说他完美无瑕是夸张的，事实上，我不会违背事实说他容易出错，表现经常低于预期，但是，他的缺席对于俄罗斯冠军来说绝对是一个问题。最重要的是，俱乐部还缺少首选右后卫卡拉瓦耶夫，后者在为俄罗斯国家队比赛时受伤。

对于泽尼特来说，替换选项看起来不太乐观，尤其是在右翼的防守端。要么是防守能力较弱的攻击型边锋苏托尔明；或另一个是主要踢中路的 Kuzyaev。

尽管27 岁，但预计他将在拉基茨基旁边顶替受伤的洛夫伦岁，他从未参加过任何欧战，更不用说欧冠联赛了。想象一下，他被要求去遏制卢卡库将会承受多大的压力。

客队的第三和第四个潜在问题是守门员和他周围唯一合适的防守型中场巴里奥斯。

泽尼特门将斯坦尼斯拉夫·克里休克从葡超球队吉尔·维森特（Gil Vicente）回到俄罗斯。最令人惊讶的是他从一开始就被分配到首发阵容中。他在周末对阵阿赫马特的比赛中首次亮相，并没有给人留下深刻印象，让很多人怀疑他在哪些方面比现任门将克尔扎科夫更好。根据我的经验，在欧冠比赛之前这样的轮换动作是有风险的，而且经常会导致后场混乱。如果教练确实选择了 Krytsyuk，我无法理解他将如何向他见过不到 2 周的防守者发步比赛的命令。

最后，哥伦比亚国脚巴里奥斯，泽尼特的唯一能抢下球权的中后卫，在从国家队回来的路上经历了一场肥皂剧。他在周六才回到俄罗斯，自然错过了以 3-1 获胜的阿赫马特。然后他在莫斯科待到周一深夜，等待获得英国签证。主教练希望巴里奥斯在比赛当天的周二起飞，并最终在同一天晚上赶上对阵切尔西。

我非常强调泽尼特的问题，为了让本篇文章更容易阅读和处理，我将简要回顾一下切尔西，他们在图赫尔的领导下已成为绝对的赢球机器。随着从切尔西签下罗梅卢·卢卡库，他们将实力提升到了另一个层次。上赛季的所有挫折，当维尔纳一次又一次地浪费机会，现在都不会出现了。卢卡库就像蛋糕顶部的樱桃，完美的让球队顺利运行、富有创造力的球队的终结者。

上周末，主队在没有受到国际比赛日的情况下击败了阿斯顿维拉（3-0），其中有很多球员参与其中。

每当他们在主场比赛时，他们忠实的球迷重返斯坦福桥球场仍然感觉像是一个特殊的时刻，因此随着冠军联赛的回归，主场优势会更加突出。

我毫不怀疑切尔西今晚能否战胜这支防守不利的泽尼特。唯一可能阻碍的是图赫尔队在领先时变得过于自满和粗心，并开始展望9月19日对阵托特纳姆热刺的比赛。除此之外，我对本场切尔西的大胜充满信心。2020/21赛季，俄罗斯球队在欧联杯和欧冠小组赛中仅取得1场胜利。