http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Bruno-Alves-c8108 has hailed Zenit St. Petersburg’s winning mentality after winning the Round-of-16 clash against Mordovia Saransk at Start stadium on Tuesday
The defending Russian Premier League champions, Zenit St. Petersburg, managed to progress to the next round of the Russian Cup after winning the round-of-16 against Mordovia Saransk at Start stadium on Tuesday.
The St. Petersburg club won the enthralling encounter against the newly promoted Russian top division side despite playing without key players as Luciano Spalletti rested http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roman-Shirokov-c31645 for their forthcoming
league tie against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Rostov-c39192 at home.
Spalletti’s men will now play the quarter-final against the potential winner between Terek Grozny and Lokomotiv Moscow.
Bruno Alves has urged his side to win two more matches in the competition to reach the finals of the prestigious cup tournament, saying that they need a bit of luck along with hard word in order to book their place in the finals.
“It was really a difficult game. We started to show decent football in the second half, when we realized that the opposition will make it difficult for us in the end. We are improving with every game but the most important thing
was just to win and qualify for the next round. We really want to go the final and win.”
“It was more difficult because Mordovia played defensively. In the second-half, we regained possession with a little more rhythm and things became a lot easier after scoring the goal. I think that the small teams can always surprise
and cause problems," the Primeira Liga winner was quoted as saying.
Alves went on to tell that the domestic cup have its own significance, saying that it gives an opportunity to the squad players to impress the head coach.
The Portuguese defender warned the St. Petersburg club against complacency, saying that they failed to reach the semi-finals of the tournament after suffering a shocking 1-0 defeat against Dynamo Moscow last term.
Zenit will not play their next league match against Rostov before going head on head with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/RSC-Anderlecht-c40394 in the UEFA Champions League. Alves urged his side to extend their winning run.
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