Mircea Lucescu: " I am pleased that my players gave it their best"
The blue-white-sky blue Boss on the 5-0 away win in Tambov, giving starts to young players and the absence of Zhirkov for the game in his hometown.
I am pleased that my players gave it their best and were collected, not making any mistakes on this pitch. The first half was fairly even and there were even a few good attacks from the hosts, who ended with some dangerous shots. Fortunately, we scored and that psychologically helped us to relax a bit. We knew that the home side will start very aggressively and powerfully in the second half, especially since they are playing with the wind. We found our free zones and scored the second goal, that decided the game. Then we were in full control until the end of the match.
Tambov recently played against Zenit-2 in the FNL and Gasilin participated in this match. How closely do you follow the young players in Zenit-2?
Today Chernov also played from the second team, because Criscito and Zhirkov were unavailable. I'm watching the second team players, they are with us at the training camp. I observe them and watch them at every opportunity and watch their matches. Unfortunately, they have their own championship and this means I can't take the second team players and use them to play friendlies as I used to do. I'm watching them in the First Division Championship, in training and they work with us. Gasilin is a promising footballer, he could do more than has done today, he gave away a penalty and in a few counter attacks made the wrong decisions. It's not so easy for young players at this level and it takes time. At Shakhtar a few young players played in the league, but this season we have had some friendly games and many of them have grown in to the championship level.
What major mistakes did Tambov make today against Zenit?
The biggest mistake is the fact that there is no way to clean up that pitch. This pitch means their team will not progress. It affects the players and the fans, because they can not show up and see a quality game. They need to do something about it. If we talk about the game, Tambov gave us virtually nothing in the first half, but they had psychological problems after we scored.
Why did Zhirkov did not come back to his home town?
He felt a particular problem about two weeks ago, and this has not allowed him to train at full stretch. It was good to allow him a break.
