Mircea Lucescu: "I'm happy with my team"
The blue-white-sky blue boss on the draw with Rostov, the conditions at the match, the episode with the red card in the referee's hand and the title race
I'm more surprised about Rostov, but on our team six players are missing compared to last season. Clearly, it was a very challenging game and Rostov have to play in the Netherlands next and have a chance to continue playing in Europe, so, probably that's what they were thinking about more than this match. They are well prepared and have potential in their players and decided to put out the team they did. While playing the match almost all their main players except Dzhanaeva, Erokhin and Azmun appeared on the pitch.
We were well prepared and have closed all areas where they had the advantage. In general, we deserved to win. It was clear that we wanted to win after that unfortunate ending in Krasnodar. I am happy with my team, they played well. If we talk about the chances we had, Mak and Kokorin both had opportunities, and we've not had the chance to review them yet. There was another mistake from the ref, when there was a foul on Neto, such moments happen, yes, but I have to say about it.
I'm satisfied that all the players looked very good physically, they showed character in the difficult weather conditions and a challenging pitch. We had problems with the starting team in the last matches and have just about 12-13 players, so I'm happy with the end of the year. I'm satisfied that Anyukov and Zhirkov survived until the end of all the matches of the championship, if something had happened to them, we would have had real problems.
Did you understand what happened when the referee pulled out the red card?
I think, probably, the ref simply pulled out the wrong card, or thought it was the second for someone, because there was no reason to show a red card. Maybe he was just confused .Human error, this has happened before in my career.
Who will be involved in the title race at the end of the year?
I find it difficult to assess the situation. I can say that we will know in the summer, many teams have players with injuries and this makes it impossible to have a good time and to prepare the team. Now there will be two months of rest and preparation, a lot of games with new players and then it will be easier.
As for the candidates, CSKA Moscow will join the race, they seem better, the Russian championship is very even, you saw what Krylia did to Spartak. Any game can end with any result.
