A tough and challenging period with opponents of my teams pulling off wonders on daily basis, but definitely not a reason to back out or change strategy.

Hence the grind continues with a pick on Russian champions Zenit looking to build upon a decent performance against Chelsea (albeit 0-1 defeat) and use the momentum of fine Premier League form in their favour.

Zenit has indeed been enjoying sudden benefits of the new 3421 formation to an absolute maximum. Back to back wins in RPL (3-1 and 2-1 against Rubin and Krylya Sovetov accordingly) with a dozen of created goalscoring chances. The injuries to centre-back Lovren and fullback Karavaev have eventually been turned into an advantage by manager Semak, who’s given defensive midfield Barrios a new RCB role next to Chistyakov and Rakitskiy. Winger Sutormin is used as a very offensive minded wingback.

Wendel and Kuzyaev are enjoying the roles of roaming box-to-box centre-mids and both look to show their best traits in the new formation. Even new signing Claudinho suddenly stepped his game up and has been Zenit’s best player for 2 games running.

With everything looking so perfect against expectations for the Russian side, they are taking on group’s weakest team Malmo and will definitely look for nothing else than 3 points.

The Swedish side came through a lucky qualifying draw to end up in the group stage.

They were shown their place on Matchday 1 by average looking, problem filled Juventus (3-0) in what remains Allegri’s most convincing result to date in 21/22 campaign.

Malmo should be a comfortable opponent for Zenit to face as it in many ways resembles a typical Russian side - physical, quite tactically primitive and technically limited.

I look forward to Zenit ending my Champions League misery with a win on Wednesday evening.

Things should be turning in the right direction shortly.

继续挑选俄罗斯冠军泽尼特的比赛，他们在对阵切尔西的比赛中取得不错的表现（尽管 0-1 失利），并利用联赛的良好势头，这对他们有利。

泽尼特确实一直在最大程度地享受新的 3421 阵型带来的好处。在联赛中连续获胜（相应地以 3-1 和 2-1 击败鲁宾和 Krylya Sovetov）并创造了十多次进球机会。中后卫洛夫伦和边后卫卡拉瓦耶夫的受伤最终被教练塞马克转化为优势，他让防守中场巴里奥斯在奇斯蒂亚科夫和拉基茨基旁边担任了一个新中卫的角色。边锋 Sutormin 被用作非常具有进攻性的边卫。

Wendel 和 Kuzyaev 正在享受中锋的角色，他们都在新的阵型中表现出色。即使是新签约的克劳迪尼奥也突然加强了他的表现，并成为泽尼特连续两场比赛的最佳球员。

俄罗斯球队目前一切看起来都如此完美，他们将迎战小组最弱的马尔默队，并且肯定只会力争拿到 3 分。

瑞典的马尔默通过幸运的预选赛抽签进入小组赛阶段。

在第 1 轮比赛中，他们在第 1 轮比赛中表现平平，0-3输给尤文图斯充满问题，这是阿莱格里在 21/22 赛季迄今为止最令人信服的结果。

马尔默应该是泽尼特面对的一个非常合适的对手，因为在很多方面都是典型的俄罗斯球队——身体素质、战术上相当原始且技术上有限。

我预测泽尼特在周三晚上以一场胜利告终。