Konstantin Zyryanov: “We`re almost out of emotions”

The Zenit halfback, who received his gold medal together with his son, commented on his team`s play and particularly noted the play of Anton Sosnin.

– I don`t think my son understood anything at the moment, – says Zyryanov. – I took him with me, and it was only later that he understood what his father was doing, and what he won. I think he`ll be really happy later.

– How difficult was it to force yourself to play in that weather, without having any particular motivation?
– Why didn`t we have any motivation? We were motivated, we`re the champions, we didn`t want to lose this match. But I agree that there wasn`t much football today: the field was in poor condition, the ball was red, and we couldn`t see it. Overall the conditions we`re really poor, and we played the best we could.

– Can we say that your experience playing today will help you on Wednesday?
– I don`t think we need it. We play on a field like this every year, and I can say one thing: it`s going to be really tough to play.

– How difficult will it be to prepare for a match like that? The team has already accomplished what it wanted to.
– It`s going to be a tough match, because Anderlecht has to win. And I can say that as for me, I am completely exhausted at the end of the season. Even in the locker room today after the match very little happened. All our emotions were spent after the match with Rostov. Nevertheless we`re going to look for more energy deep inside, and try to play good football and win.

– Would you agree that today`s tie suited both teams?
– I wouldn`t say that we were happy with a tie. We tried to win.

– Did you feel during today`s match that you were playing against a team on the edge of the abyss?
– Ya, Samara defended really well. They really needed this point to save themselves, so they played quite aggressively today.

– You probably knew that Anton Sosnin, a former Zenit Youth Team player, would play against you in today`s game?
– He wasn`t a Zenit youth player today. He played for Krylya Sovetov. Anton played very well.