Zelimkhan Bakaev: “You could see that both teams wanted to win”
Text: Maria Zolina
The Zenit midfielder spoke to us after the charity match with Fenerbahçe.
“It was a good match, even though it was a friendly. You could see that both teams wanted to win, so there was plenty of tackles. The referee didn’t let us play much as he was stopping the game every time there was a contact between players (smiles). It was a good match!”
Malcom was trying to calm you down at some point. What happened?
“Their captain wasn’t very nice to Erokhin, so I stood up for him and told their player that he needed to calm down, it’s just football. After that he kept provoking me a little for the rest of the game (smiles).”
Why do you think the referee was stopping the game so much today?
“I don’t know and I don’t like discussing this topic, let’s move on.”
How important was it to play against a team from another country?
“To be honest these matches are awesome, and I think we all miss them. It’s interesting for the teams to play against each other, to feel this atmosphere, everyone wants to win. I hope we’re going to be back to UEFA Competitions as soon as possible.”
