The world feels a slightly better place for Mancini tonight, I'd imagine. His Zenit side have handed out a 5-goal hammering to Tosno in what the Russian media billed as the 'Northern Derby'. Tosno are the side from a small town 30 km outside St Petersburg who, with the backing of a large property development company, have this season made it to the top flight for the first time.
They're struggling among the elite but didn't make it easy for the hosts, especially in the opening period. They were well organised and Zenit found them hard to break down, leading at the break only through a Paredes penalty. It was probably a fair decision but was a little soft in that it came from a mistimed challenge when the goal wasn't really under threat. Zenit were a little below par again, just lacking the zip in their passing that they showed early in the season. But after the break, it was a different story. A neat finish by Kuzyaev doubled the advantage with the half just a few minutes old and before the end there were also scoring contributions from ex-Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovich (a header from a corner), Russia's golden boy Kokorin (a lovely solo effort), and a first of the season for the big Russian international target man Dzyuba (a nice move in which he featured and applied the final touch).
So Mancini's team earned themselves a much needed confidence boost before the next league game, a crunch clash away to Spartak Moscow. The reigning champions will want to avenge the 5-1 hammering they took from Zenit in August and they've been in great form recently, looking quite exceptional going forward in their 4-1 win at Krasnodar on Saturday. Next week's game will be on the Monday evening, 27 November.
The switch to Monday is because Zenit are in Europa League action this coming Thursday, when they host the Macedonians FK Vardar in a match they really could do with winning if they're to top their group. Having beaten the same opponents 5-0 away a couple of months ago, I imagine that they'll hope to be able to claim the victory even while rotating the squad with Monday in mind.