Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg maintained their perfect start

in Champions League Group H with a 2-1 win over Belgian side Gent on

Tuesday.

Goals by striker Artem Dzyuba and midfielder Oleg Shatov allowed

Zenit to take a significant step towards qualification as they collected

maximum points to top their group, three points ahead of second-placed

Valencia, who beat Lyon 1-0 in the other Group H encounter.

Midfielder Thomas Matton was on target for Gent.

“We were fantastic, we deserved this win,” Zenit manager Andre

Villas-Boas said. “We didn’t have a lot of posession but we had much

more chances than Gent.”

“Our strategy was to be compact and wait for chances on the counter-attack like we did in Valencia and it worked well for us.

“We took six points from two games. We have four more games to play

and we have a good chance (to qualify) if we continue this way.”

Zenit, cheered on by a capacity 21,000 crowd at Petrovsky

stadium, started in lively fashion and in the fourth minute Ezequiel

Garay forced Gent goalkeeper Matz Sels into a remarkable diving save

with a well-struck free kick from 23 metres. 

In the 18th minute the home team wasted an even better chance when

Dzyuba failed to convert Igor Smolnikov’s cross from the right, sending

the ball wide from seven metres.

But in the 35th minute, Zenit broke the deadlock when Hulk set up

Dzyuba and the Russian international headed home from the edge of the

six-yard box.

After the interval, the visitors stepped up a gear and in the 56th

minute skipper Sven Kums found the unmarked Matton in the area and he

kept his cool to fire into the corner from close range.

In the 67th minute Hulk, surrounded by five Gent defenders, slipped a

pass into the area to Shatov, who restored Zenit’s lead, lobbing the

ball over the helpless Sels after beating the offside trap.

Gent poured forward in search of an equaliser but Zenit, who have won

all five of their previous home meetings with Belgian clubs in European

competition, held firm.

“I didn’t expect we would be so good in posession, creating some

chances, but maybe not enough,” Gent head coach Hein Vanhaezebrouck

said.

“Unfortunately we have not reacted well enough on Zenit’s counters.

We need to be more professional and act smarter before the situation

becomes too dangerous.

“There’s something we need to learn and we’re going to improve on it.

Hopefully it will gain us some more points in the upcoming games.”