– I think that Amkar came here to just get any kind of result, and they would have been very happy with a tie, – Kerzhakov explained after the match. – They were all playing defense, and tried to play real football for only the first five to ten minutes. Eventually one of their players got red-carded, and I think he deserved it. Then in the second half, when Amkar was down to ten players, we completely outplayed them.
– Can we say that Zenit would have scored anyway?
– Ya, I think so. Even if we had played them eleven on eleven, our victory would have been just a question of time.
– Were you afraid at halftime that Amkar might put their whole team to defend in the penalty box in the second half?
– No. We were better in the first half, and we created lots of chances. Our game plan for the second half was that if we continued the same way as we played in the first half then we would definitely score.
– Today you got your tenth goal in the last seven games. That`s a good rate. Will you catch up to Welliton in the goal race?
– The main thing is for us to come in first place! I don`t care if I catch up to anyone or not.
– Was your goal just lucky?
– First of all, Igor Denisov did everything right. It`s hard to break through the defense when there are so many players near the penalty box. In those situations you have to take more shots from far out, and hope for a goalkeeper mistake. That`s pretty much what happened.
– You have a lot of matches coming up now. Is the team ready for that?
– We have many very good players, about 20 of them. I think that`s more of a question for Spalletti, but if you want to know my opinion, I`m ready to play in all the matches. And the whole team is too.
