Luciano Spalletti has admitted that the Zenit St. Petersburg will find it difficult to win the upcoming Russian Premier League tie against Anzhi Makhachkala on Sunday
Zenit St. Petersburg will play the upcoming Russian Premier League tie against Anzhi Makhachkala at Stadion Dynamo (Makhachkala) on the back of a 5-0 win against Spartak Moscow at home.
Anzhi, on the other hand, are low on confidence after suffering a 1-0 defeat against CSKA Moscow last week.
However, Luciano Spalletti has told his side to work harder for the upcoming fixture, insisting that the Makhachkala-based club can become a major hurdle in their quest to retain the league title this season.
The Italian tactician is full of praise for the opponent that has made significant improvement during the last two years. Anzhi made some remarkable signings ever since Suleyman Kerimov has become their president.
There is little arguing to the statement that the Russian billionaire has helped the Wild-division on financial grounds. Kerimov persuaded star players: Samuel Eto’o, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Yuri-Zhirkov-c37683 to come to Russia by offering
them lucrative packages.
Who could have ever thought that Anzhi, who remained absent from the premier league before clinching a promotion from the Russian First Division after almost seven years, will come back as strong as they are now.
Going into the crunch league tie, Zenit will be without http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Danny-c10193 Miguel. The aforementioned players are in the treatment room after sustaining injuries.
“The most important is the team spirit, character, and not the presence or absence of individual players. We're going to Makhachkala with the players that we have at our disposal, let’s see what happens next. I think the player
need to have confidence that they can beat anyone.”
“I think that Anzhi have a decent squad with big names. But the names are not going to help their team on the field. They can only make a difference after displaying quality football.” The Russian Cup winner was quoted as saying.
Spalletti went on to hail Anzhi’s latest acquisition, Lacina Traore, insisting that the Dagestani club are fortunate enough to have the Ivorian striker.
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