Fans consider matches against Saprtak the most important game of the season. They say that you can lose to any team, but not Spartak. In the period of time that you’ve been at Zenit, have you realised how important these matches are?
“Without a doubt we understand that these matches are different from the other games, both in terms of the competitiveness and the historical significance. We’re fully focused and ready to travel to Moscow to bring the win home.”
The match will be intense both physically and mentally. What is the process of getting ready mentally going to look like for you personally? Is it better to enter the pitch totally calm or do you let the emotions overflow?
“No, our priority is to get there and play football, we can’t let our emotions take over. Obviously it would be impossible to completely avoid them in a match like this, but our aim is to play football, to do our best and win.”
Last season you played only one full match for Zenit. Would you like to play more this season? What do you have to improve in order to achieve that? On social media there are pictures of you and Claudinho cruising through the rivers of St. Petersburg on a boat. What was this boat trip and did something unexpected happen during it?
“It’s only natural for this to happen, I joined the club last year when the starting XI was already settled. I was getting as much playing time as I could and tried to make the best out of it to help the team. I hope I was successful at it. Now I’m getting more playing time and I want to give my all on the pitch to keep winning matches and new trophies. My aim is to do my absolute best and I’ll try to do exactly that.
Regarding the second question, we used the chance to get to know St. Petersburg a little better, it’s an incredibly beautiful city with so much water, so we decided to take a boat trip on our day off. We were able to recharge, so now that we’ve recovered physically and mentally we’re fully ready to work and travel for the match against Spartak.”
