Fights&Clashes: FC Zenit’s ultras invade the pitch and one of them punches FC DYnamo Moscow’s Captain

We haven’t written about Coppa Italia Final (yet), because a lot of words, maybe too many and too demagogic, have already been used everywhere, and because facts are still unclear, but today we’re going to write about  similar, but less “known” (at least in Italy) happenings.

We’re in Russia at San Petersburg, and FC Zenit, the home team, is on the top of the table with 60 points, 1 more than Lokomotiv Moskva and 2 more than CSKA Moskva, and has to face FC Dynamo Moskva at Petrovskiy Stadium. The club from the Capital is currently fourth, can’t win the Title anymore, but has to defend its position that would qualify them for 2014/15 Europa League.

The match starts well for FC Zenit, that at 6′ goes 1-0 up thanks to a Danny‘s goal, but from 35′ to 71′ Andres Villas Boas‘s side has a black-out and concedes four goals in a bit more than half an hour, thanks to goals from Yosupov, the Argentinian Fernández, the Ecuadorian Noboa and the Brazian/German naturalized Kuranyi, while at 84′ Kerzhakov reduced the gap for FC Zenit.

The goals.

Few minutes later, at 86′, about 500 FC Zenit’s ultras - we don’t know the true reason, but we suppose because of the players’ bad performance that will probably make the Title go away from St. Petersbourg - come out from the stands and occupy the field track behind a goal, maybe in order to intimidate Dynamo’s players or to make Zenit’s ones react.
While the invaders are coming back to the terraces, probably a fight breaks out among few players (in the videos we just see the Portuguese Danny who tries to calm down a raging Rondòn), and that makes the ultras change their minds and they invade the pitch, and one of them punches Vladimir Granat, Dynamo’s Captain.

The invasion.

The referee abandoned the match, and probably the 2-4 result will be confirmed, or Zenit will be awarded a 0-3 defeat: the home Club made an official statement that condemns the event, declaring that fans’ disappointment can be understood, but hooliganism and riots can’t be accepted on a football pitch, and that the club’s image is damaged.
Moreover the statement says that the Club is ready to change its relationship with its fans, and is concerned about Vladimir Granat‘s healt, to whom a quick recovery is wished: http://en.fc-zenit.ru/main/news/ct3/58562.html.

Vladimir Granat getting punched.

We leave you free to judge the events, but before ending the post we want to point out two things:
1. On FC Zenit bench there’s a person almost fully wrapped in a blanket, so that it may looks he’s wearing a chador: he’s Andrey Arshavin !
2. The referee looks like Vladimir Putin, the President of Russian Federation