The Italian tactician hails Zenit St. Petersburg’s 3-2 UEFA Champions League win against SL Benfica and shed light on Bruno Alves and Maksim Kanunnikov’s performances
Zenit St. Petersburg managed to claim all three points in the first-leg of the UEFA Champions League pre-quarter-final against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/SL-Benfica-c40542 at Petrovsky stadium.
Though Zenit conceded the opening goal of the match, they managed to equalize before half time. The start of second period saw substitutions from both sides. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Konstantin-Zyryanov-c21312, scored a fantastic goal
to take the lead.
The Portuguese outfit, which is unbeaten in Europe this term, managed to cancel the lead, thanks to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Oscar-c28720 Cardozo’s goal on 87th minute. However, Shirokov scored his fifth goal of the Champions League campaign to ensure
his side claimed all three points.
Luciano Spalletti, the Meshki head coach, has praised the Russian outfit’s winning mentality and never-say-die attitude, following the late winner by his side after ninety minutes of gruelling action.
“Zenit played with great character and a tremendous heart. I am happy that we have acted according to our pre-match planning. All the goals were good but Semak scored an absolute beauty.”
“I knew that Benfica will give us a tough time but we showed that we are capable of winning against strong contenders. The advantage is still minimal but we will now go to Lisbon with confidence.
“I don’t think we need to fear any team. We will try to show our game in Lisbon.” The former Udinese coach was quoted as saying.
Spalletti went on to express his faith in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Tom-Tomsk-c39228.
He admitted that Kanunnikov was up to the mark, as he needed a strong attacker against the Portuguese outfit.
Speaking on the incident that led to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Bruno-Alves-c8108 picking a yellow card, Spalletti revealed that the Portuguese defender was rightly booked for a poor tackle on the Eagles striker, Rodrigo.
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