What team(s) do you follow?

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How is Borussia Dortmund fairing this year?

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It is relevant to point out that this Zenit side was not an expensively assembled outfit packed full of Brazilians and other overseas imports, as Russian sides were at the time and continue to be, but rather a very much home-grown unit.

The regular starting line-up contained only three non-Russians – all of whom were from Eastern European countries - and Advocaat deployed them in the 4-5-1 system that had still to fully catch on in western Europe.

In goal was Vyacheslav Malafeev, who was protected by a solid centre-back pairing of Roman Shirokov and Ivica Krizanac. The full-backs were the marauding Aleksandr Anyukov on the right and the Czech Republic’s Radek Sirl, complete with a potent left foot for both crossing and shooting, on the other side.

Shielding the back four was the outstanding Ukrainian Anatoliy Tymoschuk, and in front of him was a quartet of small but superbly skilled and mobile midfielders who regularly interchanged positions but usually started as Viktor Fayzulin on the right, Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyryanov in the centre and Andrei Arshavin – later of Arsenal fame - cutting in from the left.

Up front was Pavel Pogrebnyak, who at times resembled Didier Drogba in the way he held up the ball, bullied defenders and banged in the goals.

Zenit were actually fortunate to get out of their UEFA Cup group, finishing only third of five teams, and squeezed past both Villareal and then Marseille on away goals in the last 32 and last 16, but from thereon in they were ruthless.

In the quarter-finals they demolished Bayer Leverkusen 4-1 at the BayArena in one of the performances of the season, the highlights of which were Arshavin’s wonderful solo effort to opening the scoring and Denisov rounding off a sublime team move for the fourth.

That was enough to see them through to a semi-final tie against Bayern Munich. After a 1-1 draw at the Allianz Arena in the first leg, Zenit ran riot in the return, drubbing a team managed by Ottmar Hitzfeld and containing the likes of Lucio, Franck Ribery, Philipp Lahm and Bastain Schweinsteiger 4-0.

Rangers were next in the final in Manchester, but the Scottish side barely laid a glove on Zenit, who won with ease 2-0 thanks to second-half goals from Zyryanov and Denisov.

Zenit later went on to beat Manchester United 2-1 in the 2008 European Super Cup

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Draconian Sanctions

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OM

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