Zenit are on a good run and Krasnodar are in a poor run of form, with the seven point gap being reduced to two. Who has the psychological advantage ahead of the match?
It’s difficult to answer regarding an advantage. We are playing at home so we have a slight advantage. As for everything else, the psychology and the game, then things are absolutely equal, 50/50. We’ll see who plays better, who will be create chances and score them. I think both teams deserve to be top. As regarding our runs, we’ve won our last two matches, but Krasnodar should have no problems preparing for this match.
What are Krasnodar’s strengths in your opinion? How have they got to the top stop and what can we expect from Zenit in the game?
Krasnodar have had some good results, and are a team greater than the sum of their parts. This is a huge credit to their head coach who has got them these results. He has organised the team in attack and also in defence. They defend as a team and attack as one as well. Cordoba is having an excellent season and the whole squad is of good quality with options in almost every position, they have good competition, so we’ll see what the result is.
Alexander Kovalenko has only played 23 minutes in four matches in the RPL this season and not registered a single goal or assist. Why is it now so difficult for midfielders to break into the starting lineup, could he go out on loan to get some playing time?
We will not let him leave, we don't have a large enough squad to let someone leave. Regarding his playing time, he has to get used to the team, and now we need to get him more playing time. I think he will have the opportunity soon, but everything depends on him and he has good stats. There are many players who did not succeed right away, there were a lot of questions around Cassierra, Wendel and Malcom when they first arrived here. Although they were more experienced and were probably more ready to immediately join the team. However, every player needs a certain amount of time to get used to things. We are more than happy with his work ethic and I think that everything will be fine for Sasha, he will get more playing time and in the future, I hope that he will be one of the top players for us.
You mentioned Cordoba, when talking about the strengths of Krasnodar. Who else would you highlight in their team?
I think we could single out every player in their team. Highlighting just one is difficult.
Their defence is very reliable, and of course, there is Safonov, who is one of the best goalkeepers in the league, and theirf central defensive partnership looks great both in defence and in attack. We can talk about their attacking players too.
Is everyone fit and ready for the match?
There are some small problems, but today there are only two players who definitely will not take part in the game, Vasiliev and Mario Fernandes, who are both training individually. We hope they will rejoin the team soon. The rest are basically ready. Perhaps some will miss the game, but this is still debatable.
