“First of all I would like to point out the great atmosphere and thank our supporters for coming to cheer for us today. Playing in the presence of so many fans is wonderful. Regarding the match itself, it was a game with a lot of goals, which the supporters always enjoy seeing, there were five goals and many good chances. Speaking of the aims and the objectives, unfortunately Andrey Mostovoy got injured. We will find out how serious it is after the medical tests in the near future. Thankfully everyone else is fine and healthy. We’re grateful to our opponent for coming and playing with us today, and also for the warm welcome back in winter when we traveled to Iran to face them for the first time. Now we’re going to rest for a couple days and start getting ready for the league to resume.”
The match was just a friendly, but the injuries are real, so I suppose it’s still unclear whether Mostovoy will be able to return for the next RPL match. What about Karavaev though, how is he feeling and is he going to be ready?
“Karavaev should be ready, he left for the Russian team after the last league match. He has a small injury, and it’s nothing serious. I think after 10 September he is going to slowly start getting involved in the training process, individually first, then he will join the team. I can’t say anything on Andrey yet, but I don’t think he will be able to join us as soon, at least from what I’ve seen so far.”
Sorry, I have a question that’s not related to the match. There was information that Isidor is going to join Zenit, can you confirm this rumor and maybe say a few words about the player?
“Regarding the official information, the club will provide it if there are any news. Right now I can’t say anything yet. Call Alexander Medvedev, he definitely knows more than I do.”
You've probably analyzed the conceded goal against CSKA, but today the situation repeated itself. How can you prevent these moments?
“We have to keep improving. There are two options, either to simplify the game or to work on our skills to play more securely with less mistakes and work on our speed, especially with the ball. We’re going to keep training to avoid the mistakes in attack, there is no other way.”
Were you expecting Sepahan to be so bold playing against Zenit? Was it in your plans? Are you content with punishing the opponent for their audacity?
“We had no doubt that Sepahan would play an attacking game. Though I’d say we were able to take the most from the space we had today. It’s exactly what we couldn’t do in the first match against them, we were a little tired and didn’t have enough speed, therefore we couldn’t create as many chances in that match. On the other hand it’s always more enjoyable to play at home. Sepahan seemed more confident playing on their home ground with the support of their fans, and they were able to take the lead and score first, which brought extra motivation to the team. That game was after we finished our training camp, so it’s obvious that we weren’t as active while playing, but today we were, we had the speed, the chances and the goals.”
