Zenit St. Petersburg goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev will recover from a calf injury for the second leg of their Champions League last 16 tie against Benfica on March 6, Zenit coach Luciano Spalletti told RIA Novosti on Friday.
Mistakes by reserve goalkeeper Yuri Zhevnov led to both of Benfica’s goals in a 3-2 win for Zenit in the first leg in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
“For the return leg against Benfica, goalkeeper Malafeev and defender [Domenico] Criscito should return to the squad,” Spalletti said.
Criscito missed the first leg with food poisoning. Strikers Alexander Bukharov and Danko Lazovic, who also missed the match with knocks, are also expected to return.
“We want to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League and putting all our effort into it. However, we understand that there’s an extremely difficult match awaiting us in Lisbon,” Spalletti said.
“Now I can say that I am proud of my team, which showed real fighting spirit in the match against Benfica.”
Zenit are in the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first team after qualifying from a group including Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk, Portuguese champions Porto and Cypriot team APOEL Nicosia.
The St. Petersburg team announced Thursday that they will spend ten days training in Portugal from Saturday, in a repeat of their strategy before their away game against Porto in December.
Zenit, who won their second Russian league title in 2010, are currently top of the Premier League by six points from CSKA Moscow, whom they will face three days before the Benfica game.
