FC Zenit is the only football club that is the owner of all the trophies of the USSR and Russia. This team was not spared by the successes in the international arena - Zenit became the owner of the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup in the 2007/08 season.
Successes in the championships of the USSR and Russia
The first major victory came to FC Zenit in 1944, when it won the USSR Cup. In the final of the tournament, the Moscow CDKA was defeated with a score of 2-1, and for the first time the cup was in the possession of the St. Petersburg team.
It was not possible to develop success, and in subsequent years Zenit did not have big victories either in the cup or in the championship, and in 1967 the team was on the verge of relegation, but it was decided to expand the USSR championship, and Zenit kept registration.
The situation was changed only in 1978, when Yuri Morozov became the head coach of FC Zenit. The team from Leningrad began to play more attacking football, to attract their own pupils, and already in 1980 won the bronze medals of the USSR championship, and in 1984, Zenit, led by Pavel Sadyrin, became the winner of the national championship for the first time in its history.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, "Zenith" was seriously feverish and the team from the city on the Neva even had to spend several seasons in a division of a lower class. The return to the elite happened in 1995, but it was still far from big victories.
Only in 1999, FC Zenit won the first trophy after returning to the top league, the Russian Cup, and two years later, in 2001, bronze medals of the Russian championship were won. However, the next season turned out to be a failure, and the team was headed by the Czech specialist Vlastimil Petrzela, who was able to win the Premier League Cup with the team and lead Zenit to the silver medals of the Russian Championship in 2003.
In 2005, Gazprom bought out a controlling stake in FC Zenit, and this radically changed the club's policy. Famous foreign players appeared in the team, and the new coach of the team, Dick Advocaat, led Zenit to the first championship in the Russian Premier League in its history.
Advocate was unable to build on the success, and already in 2009 FC Zenit fell into a protracted crisis, after which the club's management decided to dismiss the head coach, inviting Italian Luciano Spaletti to replace him.
The change of coach went to Zenit's advantage: in 2010 the Russian Cup was won, and the former coach of Roma brought Zenit to the championship twice, making the club from St. Petersburg a three-time champion of the Russian Premier League.
International victories
Success in the international arena in Soviet times bypassed Zenit, and all the main achievements on this path are associated with the name of Dick Advocaat. It was he who led FC Zenit to victory in the UEFA Cup in the 2007/08 season, defeating the French Olympic, Munich Bayern Munich and in the final - the Scottish Glasgow Rangers on the way to this trophy.
For the UEFA Super Cup, Zenit had to compete with the winner of the Champions League, the formidable Manchester United. However, the players of the St. Petersburg club did not hesitate and beat the superclub from England with a score of 2-1, having won the coveted trophy.
