However, the former tactician has downplayed the defending Russian Premier League champions' chances of defeating Malaga and AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League
The former Zenit St. Petersburg head coach, Boris Rappoport, has shared his opinion on why the club had problems in the Russian Premier League match against Volga Nizhny Novgorod and commented on what they can expect in the UEFA
Champions League.
An injury-time strike by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Aleksandr-Kerzhakov-c4569 salvaged all three points for Luciano Spalletti’s side after llya Maksimov managed to cancel out Aleksandr Anyukov’s opener late in the match.
Consequently, Zenit managed to climb up to the 2nd spot on the league table due to a higher goal difference as compared to the 3rd placed Anzhi Makhachkala with 33 points and trial the top-spot by another
three points.
Rappoport hailed Spalletti's wards after clinching a last grasp winner against a decent side, saying that the Russian outfit did not lose hope and keep on fighting until the final whistle of a spectacular contest.
"Zenit do not take excessive pressure to play the sides like Volga. They keep possession inside their half of the field and terrorize their defenders after conducting good tackles and with the help of a rapid counterattack.”
“Gadzhiev is an experienced coach, he understood that he was worth enough because the Petrograders played their second game in a week. Actually, I want to tell that the game of Volga was quite organized which caused Zenit a little
inconvenience in the end.”
“Volga plays attractive football as they have some good attacking players. But Zenit showed that they were ready.” The former Dynamo Leningrad player was quoted as saying.
Speaking on Zenit’s disappointing start to the UEFA Champions League campaign, Rappoport believes that the defending league champions will find it difficult to claim much needed points against the fast playing, Malaga, and great
defending team, AC Milan, in the European tournament.
As things stand, Zenit are at the bottom-spot on their respective group table with just three points as they failed to win three of the total four group stage games played so far in the competition.
Tags: