| Zenit St. Petersburg midfielder Andrei ARSHAVIN, who has already become the leader of his club, does not yet have a permanent place in the Russian national team. He was called to Bor near Moscow to prepare for the qualifying matches with Georgia and Albania from the youth team, after the injured Krylia Sovetov midfielder, his namesake Andrei Karyaka, had to leave.
— I learned about the call to the national team on Monday evening. I was already in the location of the “youth team”, and on the way to dinner I was informed that I needed to pack my things and move to Bor. Everything happened quite unexpectedly and was good news. But the fact that I was invited instead of Karyaki, who was injured, is not very good; it would be better if Andrei were healthy and playing. Still, it’s hard for any football player to leave the national team’s training sessions for health reasons.
—Have you followed the events of political life in the last month? After all, the Georgia-Russia match was in danger of being disrupted.
— To be honest, I’m not particularly interested in politics. But recently I saw a television address by the leader of the Georgian national team, Kakha Kaladze, who said that there is no need to transfer political strife to sports. I completely agree with him, because the relations between the football players of our countries are very friendly. I hope the game in Tbilisi will take place in a good atmosphere.
- Which of the current generation of Georgian football players do you consider to be the strongest?
- First of all, this is the already mentioned Kaladze, who plays for such a great club as the Italian Milan. And also Arveladze from Glasgow Rangers and Ketsbai, who is now playing in Greece. However, the latter, as far as I know, has not been called up for the match with us.
- In your opinion, will the meeting with Georgia be similar to the match with the Irish?
- I don’t think so, after all, Georgians play a completely different football. The tactics for the game will depend on this. But, on the other hand, I am sure that in order to defeat your closest opponent you need to show the same thirst for fight and dedication as you did against the Irish.
- The main attention is now paid to the match with the Georgians, but maybe we should be wary of another opponent - Albania?
- In my opinion, the Georgian team is more dangerous than the Albanians. But this is by no means due to underestimating the opponent. It’s just that we will play with the former on a foreign field, and with Albania in Volgograd, and the team will have great support from the stands.
— The defeats of Russian teams, including your Zenit, in European competitions have led to talk about the regression of Russian football.
- The level of our football is really low, and we must accept everything as it is, such conversations are absolutely fair. However, in the national team you need to forget about the club’s failures and make every effort to win. After all, if the national team wins, the authority of our country will grow. Now, unfortunately, when we meet with European clubs, the judges interpret many points not in our favor. They never forgive us anything! In such an atmosphere, when you are sure that in 99 cases out of 100 the judge will turn away and pretend that nothing is happening, it is unpleasant to play. But this is the reality, and there is no escape from it.
- Can your words be interpreted this way: in the match with Georgia, the referee will sympathize with the hosts?
“I don’t think there will be any special mistakes, but the judge is also a human being.”
— Recently, your friend and partner at Zenit and the Russian national team, Alexander Kerzhakov, wrote a book. Are you planning to follow his example?
- So far, unlike Sasha, I have nothing to write about. I haven’t read his work to the end yet, I’ve only mastered a few chapters. True, I already know a lot of what it talks about from Sasha’s stories, but perhaps, having finished the book, I’ll still find something new. Denis VDOVIN
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