Zenit St Petersburg vs Slavia Prague Predictions

Zenit St Petersburg go head-to-head with Slavia Prague this week in an eagerly anticipated Europa League Group C clash at the Krestovsky Stadium. The Russians can knock the Czech side off top spot with a victory on Thursday and the Lions are huge favourites to get the win they need.

Coincidentally, these teams met in a mid-season friendly at the beginning of 2018 in January. While non-competitive games don’t hold the same weight as competitive fixtures, it’s still interesting to note that Zenit battered Slavia 5-1 in Russia that evening. Memories of that mauling should still be relatively fresh in the Prague players’ minds this week.

Zenit come into Thursday’s match armed with one of the continent’s most impressive home records in the Europa League. The Lions have lost just one of their last twenty-eight home games in the competition and they are currently on a run of seven wins from their last eight on their own patch in the UEL.

Domestically, the Lions have started this season well and sit top of the Russian Premier League after nine matches. Their 2-1 defeat to Anzhi at the weekend was only their second defeat in twelve in all competitions and a huge feature of their game and foundation of their recent success has been their sparkling attacking and goalscoring form.

Zenit have averaged two goals per game in the Russian top flight since the new season kicked off and at home in particular, they have been playing some scintillating stuff. Zenit scored twenty-one times in their last five matches at the Krestovsky Stadium alone, an average of 4.2 per game.

Slavia Prague’s task seems very difficult then, and their record in the Europa League over the past decade further highlights the uphill battle they face in Russia list week. Slavia’s 1-0 win against Bordeaux on Match Day 1 of Group C was only their fifth UEL win of any description in thirty-one games in the competition.

Their results on the road in the Europa League make for grim reading too. The Červenobílí have won only one of their last fifteen fixtures outside the Czech Republic in the competition. In fact, they have won only four times on their travels in the Europa League since the year 2000.

When you consider and evaluate the respective teams’ home and away records in this competition, Zenit are priced fantastically to win the game outright on Thursday and we’re tipping them to take the points in Russia.

Slavia’s preparations have also been hampered by injury and there are concerns over the fitness of key striking duo Milan Skoda and Stanislav Tecl. They will hope to have at least one of them ready in time for Thursday.

Zenit have been tearing teams to shreds at the Krestovsky Stadium in recent weeks, rattling the net twenty-one times in their last five games at that venue. With that in mind, we think the over 1.5 Zenit total goals market looks brilliant value. Finally, our correct score prediction forecasts a comfortable 3-1 win for Zenit in St Petersburg.