Zenit St. Petersburg Preview

By Mark Heys
November 2 2005

Bolton Wanderers are back in European action tommorow evening as they face a home tie against Russian outfit Zenit St. Petersburg in the second game of the UEFA Cup group stages.

Zenit currently lead Group H of this competition having defeated Portuguese side Vitoria Guamaeres 2-1 in the last game, whilst the Wanderers have a point on the board after holding Turkish side Besiktas to a 1-1 draw in Istanbul last month..

A win for the Wanderers would see them overtake Zenit at the top of the group and continue a fine run of form which has seen them undefeated since the 5-1 mauling at Chelsea. St. Petersburg on the other hand have lost their last two league games against Moscow and Rubin Kazan and have slipped down to fifth in the Russian Championship.

Bolton boss Sam Allardyce has experienced midfield pair Gary Speed and Jay-Jay Okocha fit again after recent injuries. Welshman Speed has yet to play for the Trotters in Europe and will be itching to build on the experiences that he gained whilst at Leeds United and Newcastle United.

Nicky Hunt (leg) and Ivan Campo (foot) are still on the sidelines and out of contention so 19-year old Irishman Joey O'Brien is once again expected to fill in as a makeshift wing-back.

Jared Borgetti has scored in two of Bolton's three European games so far so he could once again be given the nod to start in place of Kevin Davies or El-Hadji Diouf.

Fringe players Fabrice Fernandes, Martin Djetou, Ian Walker, Ricardo Vaz-Te and Jarostaw Fojut may come into the reckoning either as starters or substitutes. Vaz-Te scored twice for the reserves against Sunderland earlier this week to do his chances of being involved no harm at all.

Zenit will be without Ukranian midfielder Oleksandr Spivak for the trip to England as the 30-year old suffered a muscle injury in last Saturday's shock defeat at home to Rubin.

Coach Vlastimil Petržela also has to base his team selection minus Czech international defender Pavel Mares as the player is still receiving treatment for a thigh injury carried over from October.

Players of note for Zenit include seasoned internationals such as Slovakian pair Martin Škrtel and Kamil Čontofalsky, Kerzhakov, Andrey Arshavin, and Aleksndr Anyukov of Russia, Norwegian Eric Hagen and Veliče Šumulikosky of Macedonia.

The 24-year old striker Aravashin has proved to be a competent goalscorer for Zenit this term so the Bolton defenders will have to keep their eye on him during the game.

In the other matches Spaniards Sevilla play their first game in the group stages at home to Besiktas whilst Portuguese side Guimaraeres get a bye until they face Bolton at the end of this month.

Bolton Wanderers From: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Ian Walker, Joey O'Brien, Bruno N'Gotty, Tal Ben-Haim, Radhi Jaidi, Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye, Martin Djetou, Ricardo Gardner, Henrik Pedersen, Jarostaw Fojut, Kevin Nolan, Gary Speed, Stelios Giannakopoulos, Jay-Jay Okocha, Hidetoshi Nakata, Khalilou Fadiga, Fabrice Fernandes, Kevin Davies, Jared Borgetti, El-Hadji Diouf, Ricardo Vaz-Te

Zenit St. Petersburg From: Kamil Contofalsky, Viacheslav Malafeev, Aleksander Anukov, Jan Flachbart, Erik Hagen, Ivica Krizanac, Martin Skrtel, Milan Vjestica, Igor Denisov, Aleksander Gorshkov, Alan Kasaev, Vladislav Radimov, Radek Sirl, Velice Sumulikoski, Oleg Vlasov, Andrey Arshavin, Dragan Chadikovski, Aleksander Kerszhakov, Mikhail Kozlov, Robertas Poskus