– What emotions does a player feel having scored a goal in front of his home torcida for the first time?
– I was really happy, and the stands liked my goal too. But actually I feel pretty nervous, I can’t get used to it. I think that if I keep scoring more goals then I’ll start to feel more accustomed to playing here.
– In the first half there were lots of battles in the air, and unfortunately you lost many of then. That all changed in the second half. What happened? Did somebody tell you something at halftime?
– (Smiles.) I think maybe the wind was blowing in the first half.
– What did you think of Tom? They took points away from Zenit in the beginning of the season.
– Ya, I played with Tomsk as well. They’re a strong team, with good defense and good ball control in the center of the field. The quick goal really helped us. Tom started to open up, which helped us to score our second goal and get the victory. I’ll say again that Tomsk is a really good team: it’s clear that Nepomnyashy put a lot of effort into the team, and now the team is playing totally differently.
– Zenit will have two long flights: one to Brussels, to Belgium, and the second to Grozny. Does the team have enough strength, and, most importantly, enough emotions to win both matches?
– Ya, those are going to be long flights. Grozny is one of the most difficult flights in the Premier League. I think will fly on the day of the match. We won’t waste our strength flying there two days before the match.
