Dejan Lovren is already out of the game with his first goal with Zenit St Petersburg, Liverpool’s former central defence team scoring his third consecutive win for the club.
After six years with the Reds, this summer was the right time for Lovren to say goodbye to Merseyside while continuing with the regular first-team football.
Joining Zenit in a 10.9 million pound deal, the Croatian has played a key role in Sergey Semak’s bottom line, betting the full 90 minutes of his 3 games in 2020/21 so far.
His first start came here with a triumph in the Russian Super Cup, a 2–1 win over Lokomotiv Moscow, before a 2-0 win in Rotor Volgograd began his season in the Russian Premier League.
On Saturday night, FK Rostov, who finished fifth in the championship last season but with 27 editions of the Zenit champion, went on vacation.
Zenit led 1-0 in the first half thanks to former Liverpool goal sardar Azmoun, scoring against his former club, before Lovren sealed all three problems with a looping header 3 minutes away.
Lovren’s headquarters, Yaroslav Rakitskiy, had already been sent off for two bookable fouls, but the 31-year-old secured a better start by converting Douglas Santos’ free kick.
He went to Instagram to commemorate the occasion, writing “today a difficult fit, but a well-deserved victory”, while Zenit keeps its position in the most sensible ranking, above CSKA and Lokomotiv for the difference of purpose.
Lovren has yet to savor a defeat, or even a draw, as a Zenit player, but will face a difficult challenge next time with CSKA on Wednesday night.
She will also be without Rakitskiy through her side, Semak will probably turn to Danila Prokhin, 19, as Lovren’s wife in the first clash of names, who will see the leadership of the senior headquarters.
“I am satisfied with the 3 points. Of course I’m satisfied with the goal, but the most thing is that we don’t fit in,” he told Zenit TV after the match.
“The last 10 minutes were pretty tough, especially with a player on the ground, but back we showed our defensive quality, all together, protecting for each and every ball, so I’m pretty happy.”
It’s wonderful to see Lovren move to his new club so quickly, scoring as his former teammates begin arrangements for defending his name in the preseason in Austria.
This justifies his resolve to move, as the lack of play time at Anfield has not affected his career at the age of 31.