Luciano Spalletti explained how he plans to beat Benfica in the face of a shortage of players

Zenit coach Luciano Spalletti hopes that personnel problems will not prevent the St. Petersburg team from playing successfully with the Portuguese Benfica in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League, and blue-white-blue forward Alexander Kerzhakov is confident that the decisive influence on the result will be not the weather, but fans who will come to Petrovsky.

Yesterday, Zenit coach Luciano Spalletti and team striker Alexander Kerzhakov took part in a press conference on the eve of the 1/8 finals of the Champions League match with Benfica, which will be held today at Petrovsky. Spalletti looked more confident than ever and even somewhat aggressive. The Zenit boss (the Italian recently re-signed a contract with the club and actually received managerial powers, according to which he can determine the transfer policy) reacted very sensitively to questions about whether player injuries would prevent the team from successfully playing against Benfica. As you know, Danny was out of action for a long time. Later, defender Domenico Criscito poisoned himself. Shortly before the duel at Petrovsky, it became known that the main goalkeeper of the St. Petersburg team, Vyacheslav Malafeev, would not be able to take the field: he had not healed his calf muscle injury. Yesterday it also turned out that Danko Lazovic and Alexander Bukharov will not play on Wednesday - Spalletti reported this.

“What, at the end of last year it was easier for us?” Mister retorted. “Then we didn’t have Kerzhakov - today we have him.” Yes, Benfica’s goal on Wednesday has no chance of hitting Bukharov, Danni, Lazovic, but in the same way Kerzhakov, Faizulin, Zyryanov, Semak, Kanunnikov can score a goal. Even Zhevnov (Zenit goalkeeper - Kommersant ) can score a goal if a penalty is awarded against Benfica. He takes the penalty very well.”

It is not known whether today it will come to 11-meter penalties, but many are convinced that only Spalletti himself can pull out the match with the Portuguese “eagles” with such losses. They say he will come up with some tactical move. The Zenit helmsman does not agree with this.

“If you make a starting XI of fans who think that way, I can tell you that they will lose the match to Benfica,” Spalletti said. “Yes, the coach plays an important role in the team, especially during the training leading up to the match, but when When a specific game begins, it all depends on the players. In addition to class and skill, our team is also strong in its head. We will be able to overcome the absence of those players that we do not have, we will be able to survive this situation. Moreover, I am not ready to use this as an excuse. “We want to win the match against Benfica and that’s it.”

Alexander Kerzhakov, who missed the autumn part of last year due to an ankle injury, played a more modest role at the press conference. He said he had fully recovered from the injury and was ready to upset his opponent, no matter how formidable. Portuguese journalists asked Kerzhakov what it would be like for him without Danny, to which the St. Petersburg scorer replied: “All we can do for him in this situation is to please him with a victory over Benfica.” Also, Alexander Kerzhakov did not agree that the frosty weather will give an advantage to the home team. “We also love warmth, we love to play on a good pitch. The spectators who will come to Petrovsky will really support us and can become the factor that will help us win,” he said.

Zenit fans always and everywhere demonstrate their devotion. They even made it to Finnish Kontiolahti, where the Biathlon World Cup was taking place, not only to support our “shooting skiers,” but also to take revenge on commentator Dmitry Guberniev, who was doing his best to popularize biathlon on television. Let us recall that last year an audio recording of Guberniev, who was working at a football match, appeared on the Internet, in which he spoke extremely unflatteringly about Zenit goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev and his wife. The poster, which fans of the blue-white-blues stretched out in front of the commentator's booth at the stadium in Kontiolahti, contained a short inscription: “The Gubernia Dog.”

As of yesterday, about 17 thousand tickets had been sold. Petrovsky Stadium seats 22 thousand people.

Yuri Baletov

Personnel shortage will be treated with the head