Why did Lodygin, Anyukov, Shatov and Paredes stay at home? 

All the players who came here are ready to play and are in excellent condition. Shatov and Paredes are injured. The others stayed in St. Petersburg to train, as the squad for the Europa League is not that large.

How seriously injured are Shatov and Paredes? 

We hope they will both recover by next Monday. 

What do you know about Vardar? Who can you compare them to in Russia?

We are expecting a very difficult game. All matches of the group stage, especially the first, are not easy. It is difficult to compare Vardar with someone from the Russian championship. They are a well organised team, especially in defence and they look to catch their opponents on the counterattack.

Are you afraid of not having scored a goal in your previous two matches? 

I do not think that this is a big problem. In football this happens, sometimes you easily score goals and then on other occasions it's very difficult to get a goal. As for the previous games, before Rostov we had a very tough match with Utrecht and before the match with Dynamo Moscow the players had just returned from their national teams.

Are Zenit a club who are aiming for the Champions League and not a game in the Europa League? 

The only ambition that we have is to deal with the upcoming game, to score goals and win this match.