Yuriy Zhirkov has popped up today – winning the game for Dynamo Moscow against his old club CSKA Moscow.
Remember Yuriy Khirkov? An absurdly talented wing-back who shone at the European Championships in 2008 he was snapped up by Chelsea in 2009 for a reported fee of £18 million from CSKA Moscow.
The talented star had promise but also had competition – and ultimately his time at Chelsea was always destined to be sub-par.
Despite winning a Premier League and FA Cup medal at Stamford Bridge he struggled to shift Ashley Cole from the left-back position and Florent Malouda from the left wing – so just three years later he left for Russian big spenders Anzhi Makhachkala for £13.2 million in August 2011.
He left the club in August last year as they put the entire first-team squad up for sale amid turmoil – and he along with the likes of Igor Denisov, Aleksandr Kokorin and Christopher Samba all headed to the capital – signing for Dynamo Moscow.
Now working under former Blue Dan Petrescu he had his best day in a Dynamo shirt today as the Russian Premier League got back under way after their winter break – against his former side CSKA in the Moscow derby.
Dynamo went 2-0 down after Seydou Doumbia hit two early strikes – and the scores were that way at half-time.
Now I want to know what Petrescu said to them at half-time – because they came out in the second half like new men.
They dominated the period – with Kevin Kuranyi and former Blackburn and QPR defender Samba drawing them level.
But it was the ex-Chelsea man who grabbed the headlines. He scored two sublime goals within seven minutes of each other to win Dynamo the tie – and send them four points clear of their city rivals, title holders and Zhirkov’s former team.
And despite his old alliances – he celebrated his goals, and rightly so.
Here are the highlights…
image: © mollyig
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