Match Preview: Zenit U-21 vs. Dynamo U-21: Where to Watch, News, and All About the Opponent

Mikhail Kobyakov’s team will play the away match of the 5th round of the preliminary stage of the Youth League 2024 on field No. 5 of the stadium of the training center of FC Zenit at the address: St. Petersburg, st. Sharova, 30.

Dynamo fans will be allocated one of the sectors of the arena. Admission to the game is free; tickets can be obtained at the stadium ticket office one hour before the starting whistle.

You can follow the main events of the match in the match center on our website, as well as on the club’s social networks VKontakte and Telegram.

You can watch the live video broadcast of the game:

– in the official Super League account on VKontakte using this link

The meeting starts at 13:00 Moscow time.

In the last round, Dynamo, represented by its youth team, hosted guests from the Black Sea coast - rivals from Sochi - in Novogorsk for the first time in history. This was the second game in a row with compositions in the group stage of the Youth League. And if in the first match, away, the blue and white won a quiet victory in class (0:2), then at home they had a blast at home.

The main character of the meeting was already the legend of our club - Galina Geibieva. Recently, she was the first in the history of Dynamo to reach the mark of 50 matches at the official level for the club, and in the game against Sochi she not only opened the scoring, but also scored a hat-trick.

But the home game with the outsider of Group D became a landmark for other Dynamo football players. For example, Taisiya Razvorotneva and Valentina Senoyedova scored their first goals for the blue and white in official matches. Varvara Demiidova and Kristina Yakovenko scored another goal each. The final score of 7:0 recorded one of the biggest victories of the Dynamo Football Club since its foundation.

But for whom the meeting on May 12, 2024 in Novogorsk became historic, it was for the defender of our club’s youth team, Alexandra Galits. The 17-year-old football player entered the field at the end of the match, played just over 15 minutes, and the next day announced her decision to suspend her professional career and left our club. From all sides, match No. 2 between Dynamo and Sochi turned out to be eventful.

— Our performance turned out to be quite high-quality, and it was difficult for the opponent. We pressed well, we controlled the ball well, created quite a lot of chances, scored a lot, so we can say that I am completely satisfied with the game.

As well as all the players - those who came on as substitutes, those who played the entire match, and those who were replaced. We replaced them not because something didn’t work out, but to give playing practice to as many of our players as possible. In my opinion, the game was quite spectacular, — commented the head coach of the Dynamo youth team Mikhail Kobyakov on the results of the victorious match with Sochm.

Blue and white defender Valentina Senoyedova, who scored her first goal for Dynamo in this match, also shared her view of the team’s performance:

— In general, the game ended positively for us - we won 7:0. In the second half we were more active than in the first, there were many chances, but in attack we need to act more calmly, then the result will be even better. And we are so happy!

In the second match of Group D, St. Petersburg's Zenit defeated the capital's Strogino, which allowed the blue and white to gain a foothold in second place and practically resolve the issue of entering the second stage of the Youth League, where the best teams of the preliminary stage will fight for the championship and championship medals . Let us modestly hope that our girls will also take part in this.

The opponent of the white-and-blues in the 3rd round – the youth team of WFC "Zenit" – is one of the main contenders for victory in the Youth League-2024. The team from the banks of the Neva River won their first medals last season – silver, although they were extremely close to gold as well, but stumbled in the very end of the championship and lost the champion title to CSKA.

In the off-season, the team from Saint Petersburg underwent serious changes – primarily, the coaching staff of Zenit's youth team was changed. Roman Levendeev came to replace Alexey Tarasyuk, who took over the main team of WFC "Chertanovo". The 32-year-old native of Saint Petersburg and a product of Saint Petersburg football played for lower league teams, as well as for the beach soccer team "Kristall". After an early end to his playing career, Levendeev almost immediately switched to coaching: he worked as a coach at a branch of Zenit's football academy and FC "Kirovets" (2020-2022), as a coach and methodologist for the team "Akron-Academy Y. Konoplev" (Tolyatti, 2022). Since November 2022, he began to combine work as an assistant coach of the junior women's national team of Russia U-16 and as a coach of FC "Almaz-Antey" teams (Saint Petersburg): in 2023, he worked with the youth team and the team born in 2009.

Already formidable opponents, the young ladies from Saint Petersburg, under the guidance of the new head coach, approach the second meeting of the season with "Dynamo" with a simply terrifying series: the blue-white-light blues won all four matches in Group "D", including the first one against "Dynamo" (4:0) in Novogorsk, scored 31 (!) goals and conceded only one! No wonder, with such effectiveness, Zenit's women thrashed their opponents in each match. 0:4 for "Dynamo" is just the tip of the iceberg compared to the outcomes of Zenit's matches with other group opponents: "Sochi" in their debut game in the Youth League received a 0:10, while "Strogino" in two battles – 0:7 and 1:10…

However, there is no point for "Dynamo" to look at others. At least because the task of the white-and-blues at the moment is not to try to jump over their heads, but to calmly resolve the issue of getting out of the group into the next, medal stage of the Youth League. To do this, Mikhail Kobyakov's charges need to score just one point in the remaining two meetings.

As for the history of the confrontation between the youth teams of "Dynamo" and "Zenit", the teams have already played 5 matches with each other and the advantage of the Saint Petersburg club is only strengthening: it has won 4 victories (2:0, 4:0, 1:0, 4:0), while "Dynamo" has only one victory (3:2), achieved back in the debut season of the Youth League in 2022. The goal difference, as one might guess, is also in favor of "Zenit" – 13-3.

The goalless streak of "Dynamo" in matches with "Zenit" continues as well: it already counts three consecutive matches. Meanwhile, the Saint Petersburg footballers have scored 9 goals against the white-and-blues in these three encounters.

The second match of this season between "Dynamo" and "Zenit" in the Youth League will be officiated by the referee team led by Ksenia Goryacheva from Ryazan, who will be assisted by lineswomen Yana Zemskova (Samara) and Elena Krasnikova (Ruzaevka).

Previously, Goryacheva officiated "Dynamo" matches: in the Youth League – against "Zenit" (3:2), "Yenisey" (2:1), "Rostov" (3:1) and "Sochi" (2:0); in the Super League – against "Rostov" (2:0) and CSKA (1:3).

The balance of victories and defeats for "Dynamo" under Goryacheva's officiating: 6 matches – 5 victories, 1 defeat, goal difference 13-7.