How did you spend your vacation?
I spent most of it with my kids, in the holidays you should be with your family, I was very happy to be with them and we had a nice time.
Witsel has left Zenit and we’ve got a lot of new players, does this mean the style and philosophy of Zenit will change?
No, but I don’t know what will happen, this is the decision of the manager to bring these players in. He will see what happens in training and then we’ll see what happens during the season. Witsel was a very important player for us, but now he has left and we have to deal with the new players, but I think it will be OK.
What are the club’s goals for the second-half of the season? To win the Russian Premier League and the Europa League?
I think it will be very difficult, but this should be our main goal to win the Russian League. In the Europa League we want to go as far as we can, it will be very difficult to win both competitions but we will prepare well for both and will try our best to be champions and to win the Europa League, but we will take each game as it comes and see.
What do think about Anderlecht, our next opponents?
I think they are a good opponent, they’re the strongest team in Belgium and it won’t be easy. We have shown our quality in the Europa League, we want to win both games and go to the next round. It’s one month until the game so we need to prepare well, in the Europa League everything is open and it’ll be a 50/50 game and we want to get to the final of the Europa League.
Was it hard to find presents for your children and wife for the holidays?
No, me and my wife didn’t give each other presents, just a small gift. It was most important that we were together with the kids. We got the kids some presents, I think Christmas is for the kids and not for us, it was most important to make them happy, to stay healthy and to be together with the family, this is the most important things at Christmas.
