Zenit vs CSKA 1-2 at Gazprom Arena: Match Photography | Anton Hauff, Sports Photographer Saint Petersburg

September 5, 2026

Both CSKA goals came after the ninetieth minute, and Zenit’s reply arrived six minutes before that. A pitchside account of a match that refused to end on schedule.

Stoppage time doesn’t get much respect in match photography. By then you’ve usually shot the goals, the celebrations and the substitutions, and you’re checking how many frames are left on the card. Zenit vs CSKA in round 7 of the Russian Premier League was a reminder not to relax.

The first half was tight, physical and short on clean chances. Then the board went up for added time and kept going: eight minutes. In the last of them Ivan Oblyakov stepped up for a penalty. I was behind the goal, wide enough to keep the keeper and the taker in one frame, and the ball went in. For the next thirty seconds CSKA’s bench made better pictures than the pitch did.

Zenit spent the second half pushing forward, and Gazprom Arena pushed with them. On 84 minutes Alexander Sobolev equalised, and the noise hit me from behind before I’d even confirmed the ball had crossed the line. I went wide for the stand rather than tight on the scorer. Sometimes the crowd is the photograph.

Then came the mirror image. Eight minutes added again, and in the last of them Oblyakov scored the winner. 2-1 to CSKA. Referee Andrei Prokopov from Yaroslavl added two long stretches of stoppage time, and both of them ended up deciding the match. By that point the floodlights were doing all the work and my shutter speed was living on borrowed time, but that’s the trade: the best frames of the night were the last ones.

That’s the part of sports photography in Saint Petersburg I keep coming back to. The evenings when the story arrives after everyone assumed it had already been written.

See the full gallery with the best moments from Zenit vs CSKA here.