Zenit St. Petersburg would likely appoint a foreign coach after confirming that acting coach Vladimir Borovicka would lead the team until the mid-season break.

Zenit sacked Czech head coach Vlastimil Petrzela on Wednesday following a string of poor results in the league.

"There was a meeting of the club's board of directors. We thanked Petrjela for his work over the last three years - he created a very strong group, but at the same time the club faces new challenges that we will approach with a new coach," the club's president Sergei Fursenko said.

The club press attache Andrei Tanner said that he is 99.9% sure that a new coach will be a foreign national.

Borovicka was appointed in temporary charge of the team following Petrzela's ouster, but is unlikely to continue past the Premier League's midseason break for this summer's World Cup in Germany.

Petrzela, 52, was sacked following Zenit's defeat 1:0 to CSKA Moscow in the first leg of the Russian Cup semifinal, and a demoralizing 4:1 home loss to Spartak Moscow Sunday. The club is now in ninth place in the regular season with eight points from six matches.

Petrzela took over at Zenit in December 2002, and led it to second place in his first season to become a popular figure in Russia's second city. He engrained an attacking style in the team based on young locally trained players, and set a record of 27 unbeaten matches between July 2003 and May 2004.

This year Zenit caused one of the biggest upsets in the UEFA Cup recent history when it dumped out highly rated Marseille of France to advance for the first time to the quarterfinals of the tournament, where it lost 5:2 on aggregate to Sevilla of Spain.

Petrzela became the second premier league's coach sacked in a week following Spartak Moscow head coach Alexander Starkov's resignation after internal conflicts at the club.

News source: RIA Novosti
Print this news