Vyacheslav Malafeev: “We were a lot stronger”

The blue-white-light blue goalkeeper shared his thoughts about the match with Saturn.

- Our team looked good today, – said Vyacheslav Malafeev. –We had really strong counterattacks, good position attacks, and excellent free kicks. I`m sure that Saturn had a hard time playing against us today.

- Were you angry that they scored a goal against you?

- During a match like today, with that score, it wasn`t a big deal. Those things happen in football. The important thing is that they don`t influence the mach result. We`ll look at what happened. The goal upset me because it wasn`t a very hard match for us, and we deserved a shutout.

- Can we say that the goal upset the team?

- Ya, to degree. Yes and no. Zenit played really well today, we looked good, and nothing happened that made our team stop, or play cautiously, or hold back. Our opponent tried hard, but in all respect to Saturn, our team was a lot stronger today.

- Did the team let up once you went ahead 4:1?

- Probably. Sometimes you have to let your opponent take the initiative and wait for counterattacks, make good ones, and increase the score even more. That`s what we did today. We have to settle down inside. Why should we give it our all when we have such a big lead in the match, and we can save our strength for the next game? So everything`s clear.

- Was today`s game a practice before the match with AEK?

- Nobody looked at this match like a practice. All opponents are different. We`re going to prepare for the next match next week.