– It`s better to go through matches like the one today on the field, – says Sergey Semak. – Because there`s a lot more nervous energy on the bench than there is among the footballers on the field. So we felt a real shock on the bench when we were down 2 goals after just five minutes. But there was a lot of time left, and we all remembered the goal we allowed in the first minutes in Makhachkala. Here our task was twice as hard, but nevertheless we had belief that things would go our way.
– The substitution Semak for Bystrov was a little bit unexpected.
– As far as I know, Vladimir had some problems with his muscles, and there were several different players who could have replaced him. We could have changed our formation on the field. I came on to a position where I could help the defense and play in the center of the field.
– When you came onto the field you took part in a corner kick. Zenit had a lot corner kicks today, but didn`t get so much out of them. Why didn`t it work better for you?
– Probably that`s one of the problem`s we`ve had all season long. But as for today`s game, we got quite a few results from free kicks. We scored off a direct kick, and the own-goal was scored when Lombaerts played well. Our strong free kicks helped us to score several goals.
– You scored on almost your first kick of the game. Congratulations on scoring your first goal with Zenit!
– That`s just a coincidence that I scored today. I`ve had lots of chances to score before. I could have scored earlier. We scored three goals in five minutes, and we had an excellent feeling after that. It`s always really important and great to score your first goal with a new team. I also like scoring goals because they give confidence, and always help the team. Goals are an excellent thing (laughs).
