Sergey Semak: “We're playing at home and so we need to attack more”

The Zenit manager on the match with Fenerbahce.
Are you expecting a different Fenerbahce tomorrow compared to Istanbul, considering that not all their players have made the trip? 

Our game and team is unlikely to change, although there are a number of players who will not be able to take part in the match. Their game differs, depending on whether they play at home or away. They are a very experienced team and can play football. We are expecting a difficult match. How it goes, we will see tomorrow. 

What is the current injury situation? Will Noboa and Kuzyaev be available?

Christian Noboa is not registered for the UEFA Europa League and is not ready yet. Kuzyaev is also not ready to play and Marchisio has some problems. The squad of players preparing for the match, has not changed dramatically. 

In the last match Marchisio came on only at the end. What was the reason for that and what about Shatov and Erokhin? 

Erokhin has had an operation and is not training. Shatov is also not training with the main squad. As for Marchisio, there were no problems in that game and he did not receive any injuries from that match. He has the recurrence of some old problem, so he is not training and will not be able to play tomorrow.

In the first match Barrios and Kranevitter played in the middle and seemed quite a defensive option. Are you ready to be less cautious tomorrow, or considering the injured players, will tomorrow be the same? 

As for the first match, I didn’t like how our attacking game looked. As for the players in the centre, due to injuries, our choices are not very big. The probability of changes are quite high. In the first match, we relied on the more experienced Kranevitter with Barrios in the centre. Now the situation has changed and we are playing at home and we need to attack more.

This season there was a similar situation when Zenit had to comeback in the second leg against Dinamo Minsk. Dzyuba, Erokhin, Zabolotny and Mak all ended up playing. Did Azmoun’s visit to the press conference mean that he will play tomorrow with Dzyuba?

Absolutely not. These are two different teams. Dinamo played one way, Fenerbahce plays another and there's no connection. The fact that we need to play aggressively and put pressure on is for sure. But the opponents are quite different. 

Given the problems with injuries, will Leon Musayev get his chance?

Of course, like all the players he is preparing. We will look at him and check how ready he is to cope with the pressure. We understand that he is a young footballer and he needs time to adapt to the game.