Alexander Yerokhin: "Our last few wins have been doubly emotional for me"

Alexander Yerokhin on the win over FC Copenhagen.

How does the team feel after a win that guarantees Zenit a place in the next round? 

Everyone is very happy, we got an important win. However we have difficult matches ahead of us, both in the league and in the UEFA Europa League. Our last few wins have been doubly emotional for me. At the end of the year, you often have to play with injuries or painkillers and I am glad that despite this, our team is winning. 

This is the second match in a row that Zenit are playing with an unusual formation. How comfortable are you with it? 

The manager says we must have different tactical options, based on the game of our opponent and our own. We won both matches with three defenders so it means that we are doing something right. 

Is the match with Slavia Prague a formality now?

For a professional footballer there is no such thing. Every match is important and we want to win and won’t be careless. 

Why did Zenit have problems towards the end of the game? 

It is difficult to say and there are a lot of factors. They came at us in big numbers as they needed to score. Perhaps we were tired or a bit nervous at the end, but we still got the win and survived.

It seemed that the FC Copenhagen we saw today and in September were two different teams. In Denmark they played much better, right? 

I would not say so. The games were similar, we had the ball a lot and we didn’t take our chances. I didn’t see any major differences in their performance. 

Zenit have already secured qualification before the match with Arsenal Tula. Is this a good bonus for the team? 

It is very important psychologically. Because mental tiredness is worse than being physically tired. Now everyone in the team feels very good and this should have a positive effect on the next match. 

Who spoke to the team the most after the match in the locker room? Artem Dzyuba?

Sergei Semak spoke to us, he congratulated the team on the win. But there were no big celebrations as we were all a bit tired.