It was a tough game for us. In the first half, we controlled the match although we weren’t sharp enough in attack. We conceded early in the second half and we had to attack more and open up the Spartak defence. They then used that free space to attack and did well. They had some quite dangerous counterattacks and I'm glad we were able to get a draw in added time. The team did not stop playing until the final whistle. We did well to avoid defeat.
Did you expect such fight from Spartak today? And did you believe you’d get back into the game? How important is today’s result?
Of course, we expected resistance from Spartak, and the matches with them are never easy. I said before the match that it is an important game. We weren’t strong enough today and didn’t show our usual intensity. The game was quite interesting and although it wasn’t the best of quality, but I'm glad we got back into it. This shows the strength of our team and their desire to change the situation on the pitch and to change the score, which we did in the end.
Any news about Dzyuba's contract?
I think the club’s leadership will announce their decision on this in the very near future and then we’ll know more.
You’ve been modest as in the first half you completely outplayed Spartak. Regarding the substitutions you made in the second half, were they pre-planned, did you want to give time to all the players? Or were you aiming to score?
Yes, they were planned and of course we wanted to give everyone the opportunity to play. In some of the players’ contracts it says they have to play exactly 60 minutes. Maybe, under other circumstances, we would have changed things at half time, but most of the substitutions were planned and the others were done because of how things were going in the match. It was clear we had to make some attacking changes to level the score. If the situation had been different, maybe we would have made other changes.
Alexey Berezutsky said recently after a CSKA game that it was hard for him and his team to feel motivated because of UEFA’s decision, especially for the foreigner players. How are you coping with this and is this a problem at Zenit?
No, I don't see it as a problem. The players are professionals and they must do their best in training and in every game. There aren’t any problems with this and if anyone has a problem in regards to this we can look at solving it without harming the team’s performance.
