It was a good, interesting game. In the first half it was tougher and Dynamo went for it, they came out and applied pressure. We moved forward but couldn’t find that final ball, and Dynamo managed to get 11 men back in their own half, so there was little space. The Dynamo players were waiting for our mistakes, and in the first half they were some, from Karavaev and Renan, and this led to some quite dangerous counterattacks from them. In the second half, the game opened up a bit thanks to our goal. In the second half it was a different game, we had a lot of chances, as there was space that allowed us to create those chances. We scored very good goals and I think it's an absolutely fair result, a well-deserved win and we’ll prepare for the next match.
Why didn't Rodrigao start today? On Thursday, you said he was preparing for the match.
He was preparing and was ready to play, but, he’s not yet at peak fitness as he spent two or three weeks in light training. He hasn’t had any intensive sessions, so today he wasn’t in the starting lineup.
Malcom is your top player, so are you worried that he will go to PSG in the summer, because who will score for you?
If he leaves for Paris, then we will only be happy for him. He absolutely deserves to be of interest to good clubs. If this happens, we will be happy for him. We didn't always have Malcom these five years. There will be other players who will also be good for the team and help us win.
Congratulations on the win! A question about Renan, recently he’s looked very stable, but today I counted four errors, not like Harry Maguire's, but still quite bad. What’s the reason for this?
In my opinion, there was one big mistake, when he tried to stop the ball and win it back, but at the he lost the ball and this turned into a rather dangerous counterattack at our goal. Other moments, we were absolutely ready for, he helps us a lot in starting attacks and is very good with the ball, he’s quick and has good passing abilities. We should not forget he’s quite young and there’s a lot of Interest in him, so its quite probable we won’t have him for long. That makes us a little sad, but, today it’s fine for us, we know what we have to do, and that there are individual errors, but he’s a player who will improve and he has huge potential.
Claudinho gave an interview that caused a lot of controversy, saying that he would rather play for Brazil than Russia. What do you think about this?
I don't think there’s any controversy there. He is Brazilian and of course, every Brazilian dreams of playing for his national team, but he’s already said that if it doesn’t happen and he doesn’t get a call-up, then he’ll be happy to represent Russia. There are no issues here and everything is absolutely fine. The guys just clarified their position.
Was it decided before the match that Malcom would take the penalty?
Yes, it was decided. Sometimes we have one player, sometimes two players who can take them, depending on how they feel on the pitch. We decided that Malcolm was that player who would take them today. It was also very important for him to play well and score, as he hasn't scored much in recent matches, but he played great today. It was a sort of hat-trick, as he won the penalty that he scored, then scored from open play and also got an assist. Today he played great.
Until tomorrow the gap at the top is 12 points and the chance of Zenit wining the league in the match with Spartak is quite possible, that Zenit will win the championship in a match against your biggest rivals, does that matter to you or not really?
It does not matter all, the only thing we are thinking about now is the next game. We want to prepare well and have everyone in good shape and to play as well as we possibly can, and to try and get the win in Samara.
