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Atletico without their six first-team players in St. Petersburg

The away team are missing lots of players, among others, Godin, Turan, Villa, and Costa

Zenit's performances have been slowing down lately but nevertheless, they are still in a good situation. They share the first place in their league while they only have to finish their job in the Champions League, although it won't be easy considering they haven't won in five game.

- I am sure we can do better and we have to do better. With the game we showed on Friday we won't be able to beat Atletico. We know where we made our mistakes and I expect us to do better on Tuesday as this is the game of the season for us - said Zenit's center-back Neto.

Zenit have a chance of getting a relatively easy win as Atletico have nothing to play for and they can decide their fate in Vienna.

- I'd rather if Atletico came with full squad as my player might think they are weakened and not take the game seriously, but I don't think that will be the case - said the home coach Luciano Spalletti.

The hosts will be missing several players - defenders Ansaldi and Lombaerts, and forward Danny, while Anyukov is in doubt.

Atletico's introduction for their visit to Russia's second largest city could not have been better. They beat Getafe by 7-0 last weekend, and the result speaks for itself. This game put them back on the first spot behind Barca, while they've already ensured their place in the Champions Leaugue knock-out stagewith four wins. Not only that, Altetico have ensured their first place in the group with two rounds to go.

Considering that today's game does not have too much importance for the Madrid team, Diego Simeone decided to leave several standard first-team players in Spain so the squad does not include full-back Filipe Luis, center-back Diego Godin, midfielders Tiago Mendes and Arda Turan and main attacking duo David Villa and Diego Costa.

Diego's response to criticism about his squad for St. Petersburg was:

- Do not underestimate the players that will face Zenit tonight. We are aware of their quality as they are a strong and serious team. We know Hulk and the rest will cause many problems for us, but don't think Zenit will have an easy task against us.

On Friday, Zenit did not look too well, which was completely expected and we had a tip stating they would struggle against Rostov but today we will go for their win, despite of everything. The reason is simple. Zenit put everything into this game, they "saved" themselves for it against Rostov and we will see a completely different story as this is the game of the season for them. I recall a similar situation last season when Zenit played against Malaga in the fifth round only Malaga had only ensured they would go through, but not the first place. Realistically, they were unlucky in that game as Zenit conceded 2 strange goals in first ten minutes and from that moment on, the game moved to the oppositions's half and Zenit got 2-2 in the end but didn't pass the group in the end. It would be a huge surprise for them to have the same thing happen all over again - to gamble away another match-point against the team with a secured first spot and without their best players, especially if we factor in the cold weather in Russia (below 0 tonight), which definitely doesn't suite the Spaniards. In my opinion, everything above 1.60 has a value and I will go for Zenit winning without any doubt here.