http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Porto-c39186: UEFA Champions League
Zenit St. Petersburg goalkeeper, Vyacheslav Malafeev, marked his return from injury against FC Porto in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. The shot-stopper had suffered from an injury suffered while playing against Rubin Kazan.
Malafeev is of the view that Zenit have the potential to progress to the later stages of the cup tournament. The Russian national highlighted that European teams have started fearing them following their demolition of the defending UEFA Europa League champions,
Porto.
As things stand, Zenit are at the second place on the group table but the promising shot-stopper urged his teammates to work harder in order to claim the top berth.
“Start of the game turned out quite nervous. This is due to the fact that the first match of the tournament we were not able to finish with a positive outcome. In addition, Porto are a difficult team. The result was a beautiful victory, which falls in the
history of the club.” The Russian Premier League Cup winner was quoted as saying.
The Russian Cup winner went onto support the refereeing decisions during the match and refused to speak further about the match officials.
Malafeev admitted that the visiting team put enough pressure on Zenit after scoring an early goal. The Russian custodian heaped praise on the Meshki attack that managed to score three goals after conceding the opening goal of the match.
The UEFA Super Cup winning goalkeeper singled out head coach http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roma-c31603 tactician.
“Coach was very emotional during the break and once again stressed that we must defeat Porto. He urged us to put more emphasis on attack. We played the second half exactly as our coach asked. We forced the guests into mistakes on the field.” The 32-year-old
custodian concluded.
Having lost their opening day clash against Apoel FC, Zenit needed a win badly to climb up the group table. Malafeev revealed that mood in the dressing room has changed and they are ready for their next Champions League challenge against Shakhtar Donetsk.
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