Isco brace helps Malaga trounce Zenit

Two stunning goals from Spanish forward Isco helped Malaga to a 3-0 win over Zenit St. Petersburg in their Champions League group stage opener.

The 20-year-old prodigy opened the scoring in just three minutes, evading the lunge of Zenit’s Konstantin Zyranov to skip past Alexander Anyukov, cut into the box from the right and place a curling shot around Vyacheslav Malafeev in the Zenit goal.

Javier Saviola tucked the ball away off the left upright ten minutes later, before Isco powered home a right-footed drive from the edge of the area on 76 minutes.

Isco’s performance overshadowed the European debut of Zenit’s Hulk, who was marked out of the game and picked up a late yellow card for simulation on a miserable night for Luciano Spalletti’s side.

Zenit next host AC Milan on Oct 3, while Malaga play Belgian side Anderlecht.