Zenit St Petersburg and Club Brugge square off in Group F on Tuesday evening with both sides looking to build some momentum in the Champions League.
The two clubs earned their place in this year's competition courtesy of winning their domestic leagues last season.
Match preview
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Having established themselves as the best team in Russia over the past two seasons, Zenit and manager Sergei Semak are now under pressure to replicate their form on the European stage.
Finishing bottom in a group which included RB Leipzig, Lyon and Benfica was a wake-up call, particularly when they gave up the chance of progressing through to the knockout stages courtesy of just one point being collected on their travels.
Incomings were few and far between during the summer window, but the addition of Dejan Lovren from Liverpool should add something extra to a squad who have been far stronger in attack than in defence.
Since the beginning of this campaign, just seven goals have been conceded in 11 league matches, with Artem Dzyuba and Sardar Azmoun contributing six goals apiece at the other end of the pitch.
Three wins and three draws have been recorded since they suffered their only defeat of the season at Dinamo Moscow at the end of August.
Like their hosts, Club Brugge have had no issues with scoring goals this season with 22 strikes coming from just nine games in Belgium's top flight.
Hans Vanaken has been the star of the show thus far, contributing five goals and three assists, but Ruud Vormer has been equally invaluable in midfield.
Although Brugge hit the headlines last season when taking a 2-0 lead against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, they failed to win any of their eight matches in the Champions League group stages or Europa League last 32.
Philippe Clement will be desperate to change that trend this time around, and the current form of Lazio means that second place in this group could be up for grabs.
Zenit St Petersburg form (all competitions): DWDWDW
Club Brugge form (all competitions): WWWWWD
Team News
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Having rested a number of players for the league game against Sochi, Semak is expected to make at least two changes to his Zenit XI.
Magomed Ozdoev and Dzyuba were both only used as substitutes at the weekend and will likely be recalled to the starting lineup.
Aleksandr Erokhin will hope to keep his place on the right-hand side of midfield.
Goalkeeper Simon Mignolet has been ruled out for Brugge after testing positive for coronavirus, while forward Emmanuel Dennis was removed at half time versus Standard Liege, putting his selection in doubt.
Ajax loanee Noa Lang is in contention to deputise for the Nigerian on the flank.
Zenit St Petersburg possible starting lineup:
Kerzhakov; Karavaev, Lovren, Rakitskiy, Santos; Erokhin, Ozdoev, Barrios, Driussi; Azmoun, Dzyuba
Club Brugge possible starting lineup:
Horvath; Mata, Mechele, Deli, Sobol; Vormer, Rits, Vanaken; Lang, Krmencik, Diatta
We say: Zenit St Petersburg 3-1 Club Brugge
With both sides having put together an excellent start to the season, we are expecting a high-quality encounter on Tuesday evening. However, despite the restrictions on crowd numbers, home advantage could prove crucial to Zenit, who will be prepared to go on the front foot against opponents who would be satisfied with a share of the spoils.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting a double chance bet on a home win or an away win in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Home/Away:curl
Darren Plant
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Zenit St Petersburg win with a probability of 48.64%. A draw had a probability of 28.7% and a win for Club Brugge had a probability of 22.61%.
The most likely scoreline for a Zenit St Petersburg win was 1-0 with a probability of 16.12%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.47%) and 2-1 (8.25%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.69%), while for a Club Brugge win it was 0-1 (9.77%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 5% likelihood.
