Spartak Moscow – CSKA Moscow 3-1
Spartak manager Massimo Carrera felt that his side’s finishing was the difference in the derby. “We took advantage of our chances. The opposition did not take their chances. But it is football: whoever scores, wins. I agree with the CSKA manager. Had the Armymen finished off their goalscoring chances, then we could have drawn with them.
“I think that this victory is a credit to the whole team. The guys give everything on the pitch, they play with heart. They work a lot in training and improve with every day.”
Responding to a question about Spartak’s title hopes, Carrera said: “Championships are difficult to win. We, of course, will fight with all our strength until the end and give everything for this. In the changing room today, I thanked the players and told them that they can be proud of what they are doing. The players are giving everything that they have. I am proud that I coach them. I can see that our players are striving to achieve serious results.”1
Carrera described the support his side receives. “It is very important for us,” he said. “I think that every team dreams about such support. The fans are our 12th man on the pitch.”
CSKA manager Leonid Slutsky echoed Carrerra on what separated the sides. He said: “Unfortunately, for us, it was a game of missed chances. When the score was 1:0, we had chances and, when the score was 2:1, we had a genuine chance. As often happens, the score became 3:1, in place of this. We regret that we did not take those chances.”
Asked whether he is undergoing his most difficult period as manager of CSKA, Slutsky said: “No. Every day as manager of the team is difficult, both when you are fighting for the title and when things are not going so well. In a team of such a level, the slightest misfires are not forgiven.”
Ural – Terek Grozny 1:4
Terek manager Rashid Rakhimov shared his thoughts. He said: “At the start of the game, we were at fault technically. We went into the game badly and played terribly for the first part of the first half. This led to the opposition scoring. Had Ural scored the second goal, it would have been difficult to return.
“The opposition brought us back into the game when the goalkeeper and defender let in a goal. In the second half, there was a game until the goal. We found the opposition’s net and it became easier for us. We began to play from defence and quite quickly scored a third goal. All of this together led to the final result.”
Explaining why Terek did not have a pre-game training session in Yekaterinburg, Rakhimov said: “We considered the weather conditions and the time difference. Terek lives and trains according to Moscow time. In order for there to have been a pre-game training session in Yekaterinburg, we would have to have left Grozny very early. We felt that it was better not to do this.”
Ural boss Vadim Skripchenko felt that individual errors were hurting his team: “For thirty minutes we stuck to the set-up, it was nice to watch. We played a nice combination and earned a penalty. Once again, it is possible to talk about a goalkeeping mistake. They have been regularly haunting us in recent times. Terek dominated on the pitch at the end of the first half and then the second half.”
Zenit – Tom Tomsk 1:0
Zenit manager Mircea Lucescu was happy with the win but felt that his side could have been better. He said: “Of course, I’m happy with the three points and that we won, but I am more concerned about the performance of the team. First of all, I am not satisfied with the instinctive decisions that some of our players took, especially in attack. We should be playing quite differently in these moments, especially with our fast counterattacks.”
Speaking about Zenit’s injury predicament, he added: “We have lost a lot of important players, unfortunately. We have some very different wide players and different central defenders and we build up from defence to pass forward. The big teams very rarely change their line-up and use rotation. We have to do it. The systems of attack and defence are affected by the changes we make with the players from match to match, and this applies especially with the injured players.”
Tom Tomsk Valeriy Petrakov bemoaned the lack of attacking nous on display. He said: “Today we played at a good level. Zenit are a fast team but, largely, we managed to cope. It was desired that, in terms of attack, we played more interestingly. In many moments it was possible to have been sharper.
“Were our attacking group more skilled, we would play better.”
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