Luciano Spalletti: "We deserved the victory”

Zenit`s head coach shared his impressions of the match won by his team against Persepolis (Iran) 2:0.

– We played slightly better in the previous match, – noted Luciano Spalletti. – That said, I think we deserved to make it to the final of the tournament. You definitely can`t say that we got there coincidentally: we had four opportunities one-on-one against their goalkeeper, while our opponents didn`t have a single shot on our goal. So you can`t say that we got lucky, that we were worse. We were better. As for the quality of our game, we did slightly less today than we did in the previous match with Sparta. But my players had a good match – there was a lot of running, a lot of fighting. We made a couple of mistakes, made some poor passes… but when I come into the locker room I`ll tell them "good job”, “bravo”, because they deserved that.

– Honestly, today`s Zenit team looked a lot like the Zenit team of July 2010, after which the team started winning match after match.
– I think we`re working in the right manner now, in the right regime. And I`ve seen excellent dedication on the part of my players. They need to carry the Zenit flag high over their heads, the colors of Zenit and our city.