It was a difficult game, with lots of emotions, tension and fouls. The ending was quite interesting, but not the football unfortunately. As for football, we had our moments, but to win, you need to score. Those few moments we did have we did not finish and in the end it was a hard-earned draw.
We saw a flash of passion at the end, why was this so intense?
It was a match against one of our main rivals, The referee decided to let a lot go and a lot of fouls were missed, I wouldn’t say in favour of one team or the other. Lots of tackles... If the referee had reacted earlier, there might not have been this coming together. After the first half, there was already a feeling that it would not end well. It’s unfortunate that it ended the way we all saw. Some of the refereeing decisions where strange to me, why was Barrios sent off but not Promes, who was the main instigator. I think everything will be reviewed and decisions will be made about the players and others who hit others in the face and from behind. It can all be viewed again and everyone can make their own conclusions.
The first part of the season is over, how satisfied are you with how your team has performed and did they deliver what you expected from them?
We are satisfied with the way we are playing. We also look at how we are playing in defence, attack, goals scored and conceded, the number of chances created, so we can understand where we need to be going. These stats help us understand what we are doing well and where we are not very good. In most matches we’ve played well. We still have work to go, and we want to keep the bar high. We want more stable performance, especially in the Cup, where we lost points. I know why this happens, as do the players, when you subconsciously know that finishing first, second or third doesn’t matter, then you cannot give it 100%. It you don’t give it everything, it is immediately reflected in the result.
Zenit will have to play in the Path of Regions in the Cup and can’t now risk a mistake. How interested are you in this tournament?
It is interesting and we always play to win. There are matches when players are physically unable to play due to the packed fixture list and we have to rotate. No matter what people say, the importance of the league is always higher. But, anyway, we want to win and go on. As for the regional path, it's not that bad. It is clear that you can’t make a mistake.
Everything is in our hands now and nothing is lost. We will go for the Cup. How far we go, we'll see, but we'll try
