MOSCOW, March 11 (R-Sport) – Zenit St. Petersburg, a three-time Russian football title-winner, has fired coach Luciano Spalletti on the verge of exiting the Champions League, the team confirmed Tuesday.
The 55-year-old Italian spent 10 minutes at the team’s Udelny Park training base on the city’s outskirts saying goodbye to the players on Tuesday morning, a source told R-Sport.
“The Zenit football team has made the decision to remove Luciano Spalletti from the post of head coach,” a website statement said.
They did not explain the decision, adding only: “Zenit thanks Luciano Spalletti for everything that he did to develop football and will always be happy to see him in St. Petersburg. Grazie!”
Spalletti joined Zenit in December 2009, winning back-to-back Russian titles in his first two seasons at the team.
After a strong start to the season, the St. Petersburg side has just one win from its last 11 games in all competitions as its hopes of domestic and European success begin to fade.
In the Champions League, the team is 4-2 down to Borussia Dortmund following a home defeat in the first leg of its first knockout round tie, and it slipped to second in the Russian Premier League on Monday, a day after a disappointing goalless draw at home to lowly FC Tomsk.
“The decision on Spalletti’s departure was made Monday morning,” the source said. “Zenit’s management is starting an active search for a new head coach, but the final decision will not be made any earlier than 10 days.”
In the meantime, Zenit confirmed earlier reports by the R-Sport source that the team would be managed by reserves coach Sergei Semak, 38, who won two titles under Spalletti as a player.
Semak is thereby confronted with two of Zenit’s most difficult matches of the season. On Saturday, Zenit has a league clash away to reigning Russian champion CSKA Moscow, before attempting to keep its European hopes alive away to Dortmund on Wednesday.
Over the last eight months, two senior players have left Zenit following reported clashes with Spalletti and team management. Midfielder Igor Denisov, then the Russian national team captain, was sold to Anzhi Makhachkala in June, and last month current Russia captain Roman Shirokov departed on loan to FC Krasnodar.
Zenit is second in the Russian top flight, two points behind leader Lokomotiv Moscow with 10 games to play.
