Zenit St. Petersburg
On December 2009, it was confirmed Spalletti would join Zenit on a three-year deal, replacing interim coach Anatoly Davydov with Italian coaches Daniele Baldini, Marco Domenichini, and Alberto Bartali also joining the Russian club. The Board of Zenit wanted him to return the Russian Premier League title, win the Russian Cup, and go through the group stage of the Champions League in his first year. Zenit won the Russian Cup on 16 May 2010, beating FC Sibir Novosibirsk in the final (having beaten Volga Tver in the quarterfinal and Amkar Perm in the semifinal). After 16 games in the 2010 Premier League, with 12 wins and four draws, under Spalletti Zenit have obtained 40 points. This set a new Russian Premier League record for most points won at that stage of the campaign. In the summer transfer window of 2010, Spalletti made his first signings: forward Aleksandr Bukharov and midfielder Sergei Semak came from Rubin Kazan; defenders Aleksandar Lukovic from Udinese and Bruno Alves from FC Porto. On 25 August 2010, Zenit lost its first game under Spalletti to AJ Auxerre and failed to advance to the Champions League group stage, but Zenit moved on to play in UEFA Europa League. On 3 October 2010, Zenit beat Spartak Nalchik to set another Russian Premier League record for most consecutive games going undefeated, with 21 games since the start of the league season. On 27 October 2010, Zenit suffered its first defeat of the season at the hands of rival club Spartak Moscow, seven games short of finishing the championship undefeated. On 14 November, Zenit won FC Rostov and 2 games prior to the end of the season won the championship title. This champions title became the first in Spalletti's career. Also Zenit went through to the group stage of the UEFA Europa League in first place to the 1/16 stage. In the UEFA Europa League, in the 1/16 stage Zenit beat BSC Young Boys. On 6 March 2011 Zenit won against PFC CSKA Moscow in the Russian Super Cup, it became the third Russian trophy under Spalletti, after that all domestic Russian cups Zenit won under the Italian coach. On 17 March 2011 Zenit lost in UEFA Europa League FC Twente 2–3 aggregate in 1/8 stage. In 2011–12 UEFA Champions League Zenit started in group stage drawn into group G alongside Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk and APOEL. On 6 December 2011 Zenit finished the group stage in second place and for the first time in club's history qualified for the spring knockout phase of Champions League. In 1/8 stage Zenit drawn with S.L. Benfica. In the first leg against Benfica, Zenit won 3-2 at home through two goals from Roman Shirokov and one from Sergei Semak. In the second leg Zenit lost 2-0 and was eliminated from the competition. On February 9 Spalletti signed a 3.5 years contract to stay at Zenit until 2015. In April 2012, Zenit won their second straight Russian Championship after beating Dynamo Moscow.
Read more about this topic: Luciano Spalletti, Coaching Career