Zenit claim Super Cup success

Russian champions FC Zenit St. Petersburg won the curtain-raiser to the 2008 domestic season, the country's Super Cup, by beating FC Lokomotiv Moskva 2-1.

Moscow venue
Despite Zenit being the nominal hosts, the match was played at the venue for this year's UEFA Champions League final, the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. Dick Advocaat's team took control of the game in the first half and went in front on 34 minutes – an error from Lokomotiv's goalkeeper Ivan Levenets on his debut allowing Zenit's Andrei Arshavin to open the scoring.

Eventful debut
After the break, Lokomotiv brought on new arrival and Russian international midfielder Dmitri Torbinskiy from the substitutes bench, and the capital club started to come into the game. They duly equalised when Rodolfo headed in after a pin-point delivery from Peter Odemwingie. However, the game changed again when former FC Spartak Moskva player Torbinskiy picked up two yellow cards inside five minutes to be dismissed.

Winner
Zenit took advantage with Pavel Pogrebnyak beating Levenets in a one-on-one and although their defender Ivica Križanac was also dismissed, they held on to win. As a result, Rashid Rahimov's first official match in charge of Lokomotiv ended in defeat.