Have the championship celebrations calmed down now? How big were they and how do you and the team feel now?
It was quite a short celebration, and everyone was happy of course. It's a great feeling and you never get tired of winning. The guys showed their strength of character and their will to win. Winning the league after such a difficult match is great. We rested for a couple of days and now we are preparing for the next match. Nothing has changed for us and we need to keep playing well, We want to play to our best and have a good game, especially since we have a match which will see us awarded the trophy after it.
You always say you aim to win every match, is that still relevant now this season, the title has been won so will it be hard to find motivation in your remaining games?
Every match is important for our players, but yes everyone knows our main aim has been achieved, but anyway, we always want to win. The guys have the mentality of winners, they always want to win, it might not always work out, but we try to play to our best and win every match. We don’t need to look for additional motivation, we go on the pitch looking to win every match.
The break between seasons this summer will be shorter than usual. Will you give some of the foreign players a little more time off and play younger players in the remaining games?
Let's see. We’ll talk with the guys, with the foreign players and discuss everyone’s plans, as everyone has different plans. Perhaps some need a rest and we’ll let them go early, for example, Rodrigao. Barrios has international obligations and we need to know more about that. The foreign players, due to their distance from home, spend much less time at home than our Russian players, so we try to give them a little more time to relax. We’ll also look at all our players and see how they are now, how much they want to stay until the end of the season. This also applies to the younger players. There are players in the team who train with us all year long and are waiting for their chance. Now those who haven’t received much match time will play more.
Is everyone fit and available for the game?
Bakaev has a minor injury, and won’t take part in the match. Robert Renan flew off for international duty. The rest are ready.
The match with Spartak saw the club get a record attendance. How would you rate the support at the championship match? What are you expecting from the stands against Krasnodar?
We have excellent support, and a full stadium. It was absolutely impossible to get tickets as it was a sell out. This was a gift for our players, for the club and for the city. Of course, we would like all our fans to be with us, they are very important to us. Those who’ve supported us over these past five seasons and seen us win the second star.
