Both CSKA Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg kicked off their 2010/11 Europa League campaigns with away victories and impressive displays of attacking football.
Both clubs lifted the tournament’s previous incarnation - the UEFA Cup - with Zenit triumphant in 2008 and CSKA in 2005.
Zenit, who missed out on the Champions League after losing to Auxerre in the play-off round, stormed into a first-half three-goal lead in Belgium against Anderlecht on Thursday eveneing courtesy of a breathtaking Alexander Kerzhakov hat-trick.
The hosts pulled on back in the second half, but Zenit ran out comfortable 3-1 winners against a side that had not lost since March.
“The team played really well,” hat-trick hero Kerzhakov said. “Especially in the first half.”
“It’s not right to call us favorites though,” he went on, as quoted by Sport Weekend. “We’ve just taken the first step.”
Zenit face AEK Athens in their next Group G match on September 30, while Anderlecht travel to Croatia to take on Hadjuk Split.
CSKA Moscow also scored three times, beating Swiss minnows Lausanne 3-0 with a header and penalty from Vagner Love sandwiched between a Sergei Ignashevich goal.
Lausanne shocked Lokomotiv Moscow in the qualifying rounds, knocking the Russian club out on penalties after two 1-1 draws, but CSKA never looked in danger.
“We should have scored more,” Love told Sport Express. “But 3-0 isn’t so bad.”
CSKA host Sparta Prague on September 30 in the next Group F game, while Lausanne travel to Palermo.
MOSCOW, September 17 (RIA Novosti)
