Congratulations on the win and the goal. Did your early goal make Zenit's life easier today?

In matches like this, it's important to score early. Today we quickly scored both the first and second goals quickly. It meant we controlled the game. 20 minutes into the second half, Ural attacked and scored, then we had a few panicky moments. But when we scored the third, we controlled the game until the end. It's a big win and a big three points, we continue on.

The team looked fresh today, as if there was no Champions League match on Wednesday. How did you manage that?

I always say this, this is the normal life of a footballer across Europe, everywhere in the world everyone plays every four days, so it's our job. We live for this and prepare for it. When you play only every seven days, it’s much harder to motivate yourself, you have more training, more stress. This feels right and that's good.

You started with three central defenders, but you had to quickly change that because of Mammana's injury. Had you planned to change formation anyway before the game?

Unfortunately, we had to change on the go, because of Mammana's injury. We hope that he will be fine and he will quickly return to the team. We started with three central defenders, then quickly switched to four at the back and I think that with the exception of a few moments, we played well. 

And you even moved to the left of defence!

Yes, I haven't played there for a long time! Actually I think I've never played there for Zenit, but at Chelsea I played a lot of matches in that position, so I quickly remembered how to play there.