Champions League Zenit St. Petersburg vs Chelsea Live

Chelsea will be seeking to finish first in Group H with a win over Zenit St Petersburg on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, the hosts have already qualified for the Europa League after a 1-1 draw with Malmo last time out ensured third place in the group.

Zenit St Petersburg has been eliminated from the Champions League at the group stage for the third consecutive season; nonetheless, they have avoided finishing bottom after gaining four points from their fixtures against Malmo.

Since their scoreless draw in Sweden last month, the Russian giants have thrashed CSKA Moscow 2-0 on the road before drawing 2-2 at home with FC Rostov last Friday, a game in which they trailed by two goals at halftime.

Sergei Semak’s team is still in first place in the Russian Premier League, two points ahead of Dynamo Moscow, whom they will meet on Sunday. Although one eye will undoubtedly be on this keenly awaited league encounter, Zenit will now switch their attention to Wednesday’s match against Chelsea, which will be their 200th game in European play, making them only the second Russian team after Spartak Moscow to achieve this feat.

Zenit’s sole prior meeting with the Blues came in their first Group H game earlier this season, when they were defeated 1-0 at Stamford Bridge by Romelu Lukaku’s 69th-minute header. Semak’s men will be hoping to duplicate their performance and come away with a more positive outcome this time around, to complete their group campaign on a good note, after frustrating Chelsea for long periods in London.

Zenit will play an English team for the third time in Europe on Wednesday, and they will be seeking for their third win in a row, having previously defeated Bradford City 1-0 in the 2000 Intertoto Cup and Liverpool 2-0 in the 2012-13 Europa League.

Chelsea’s 12-game unbeaten run in all competitions came to an end last weekend when they lost 3-2 away to London rivals West Ham United after letting a one-goal lead slip twice.

Despite leading 2-1 at halftime owing to a Thiago Silva header and a superb Mason Mount volley, the Hammers came away with all three points thanks to goals from Jarrod Bowen and Arthur Masuaku, the latter catching Edouard Mendy off surprise with a mishit cross in the 87th minute.