Alexey Petrushin presented an overview of the 25th round of the RPL

– Alexey Alekseevich, be honest, did the 25th round of our championship surprise you?

– I will not hide, I was surprised. It turned out really very interesting and unexpected in terms of results.

Lokomotiv – Khimki (5:1)

Let’s start with the last match. Lokomotiv’s five goals against Khimki just from a series of amazing?

– Yeah … I didn’t expect it at all. Moreover, Khimki played well in the last two games, beat Torpedo, and before that they tied with Krylya Sovetov. Knowing Talalaev well enough, his principles of work, he hoped that Khimki would give battle to Lokomotiv. The first half of the first half, the team looked pretty good. And then this optional penalty kick. But even taking into account his team simply does not have the right to play defense like that. And when at the beginning of the second half they conceded the second goal, the Khimki players almost simply quit playing. You can not do it this way. Lokomotiv could score even more. This, of course, just surprised me. I think that all this surprised Talalaev himself, the head coach of Khimki.

– Lokomotiv striker Artem Dzyuba set his next record in this match, having already scored the 31st team in the Russian Premier League. How does he do it?

– It’s a simple question – how does he feel about himself. He has something to prove, especially to himself. And he shows what he is capable of. You can’t teach a striker to score, you have to be born with it. And he has those qualities. But he’s not alone – Lokomotiv managed to put together a very good attack this spring. Glushenkov, Pinyaev came…

— Loko head coach Galaktionov created such a powerful attack from scratch, or did he still have some kind of base left from the previous coaching staff?

Of course there is something left. But the attack is really new, you see. Plus, I’m 100% sure that the training process has changed. And Galaktionov managed to unite the guys with a common goal – to get out of the hole in which the team found itself.

“Wings of the Soviets” – “Zenith” (1:5)

– In this round, another match ended with a similar score. “Zenith” defeated the “Wings”. Was this result also unexpected?

– Krylia always play quite well at home. And this result surprised me a little. Moreover, Samarans quickly opened an account. And then quickly missed. Well, then Zenith took everything into their own hands. And “Wings” began to make some childish mistakes. This happens when a team tries to quickly move from defense to attack. And the defenders make mistakes, playing through the pass, they bring goals to themselves. Sometimes you need to play easier. It is clear that this is a coaching setting – to take the ball out of defense through a pass. But it doesn’t always work out. Moreover, there are a lot of young players in the Wings now.

– And if you had a chance to prepare your team for the game against Zenit, what tactics would you choose to counter their powerful attack?

– It is clear that it is impossible to play open football against such a team. It is necessary to act more strictly in defense, to catch them on counterattacks. Sometimes you have to sacrifice an attacking game, take into account who you play with. Of course, sometimes a gamble, as they say, contributes to the result. But in this case, I think that just this is what played a negative role. It is clear that at home you want to show beautiful football, but, as the great Lobanovsky said, the game will be forgotten, but the points will remain.

Spartak – Rostov (1:1)

– This spring, they talk a lot about Rostov and the work of Valery Karpin. What impression did the Rostovites leave in your duel with the Spartak team?

– I can’t say that Rostov shows some kind of super football. They just clearly do what they can. The team is counterattacking to a greater extent. That is why it is now in second place. Strictly plays in defense, using counterattacks and mistakes of the opponent in defense. But this is in contrast to the same “Wings”. Karpin is set for results, and they sometimes require something to sacrifice. Of course, there are certain problems, but there are other points: how many penalties have Rostov already taken this season? In my opinion, 15. Probably, neither in Russian football nor in Soviet football has it happened that the championship has not yet ended, and the team has already taken 15 penalties.

– Spartak now has a very important match against Zenit in the next round. Which can become “golden” for St. Petersburg residents. How do you like Spartak’s game in the spring part of the season?

– Spartak started the second part of the championship very well, scoring points. That is, the team approached the spring part in fact in one hundred percent readiness. Therefore, she won. But in any case, this form does not last so long. A month somewhere, two months. And then, as often happens, there can be a decline. This is precisely the period that has come, Spartak began to lose points. I attribute this only to the fact that mistakes were made somewhere in the preparatory winter period.

Dynamo – Fakel (0:2)

– In this round there was another very important match – Dynamo against Fakel played the match of the CENTURY. And lost. What didn’t work out in this match for Dynamo?

– The main thing did not work out – to score. Although I can not reproach my teammates that they did not want to. They really wanted to. Moreover, about 15 thousand spectators came to the game. They wanted to celebrate. Once again I repeat, the first half the team looked decent enough. The only thing I didn’t like was a lot of marriage. Plus dangerous moments were created much less than in other games. In the first half, for example, somewhere there was one moment, all other attacks simply did not reach the opponent’s goal. And in the second half, the fuss has already gone. When the second one was released, everything went wrong. Perhaps the replacement should have been made earlier, somehow shake up the front line a little.

Akhmat – CSKA (1:3)

– The army team managed to win a very difficult victory in Grozny, Akhmat rarely loses at home.

And this result was unexpected. You are right, it is difficult to play in Grozny. Fedotov did not even put Chalov in the starting lineup. What is the difference between CSKA and Spartak today? There was a failure, but now the team is on the move, on a good track. And victories give them strength. In Grozny, they won without question. Everything is on point.

Krasnodar – Ural (1:1)

– Since we are talking about the amazing results in this round, how unexpected was the draw in the match between Krasnodar and Ural? Or could it still be assumed that this would be the case?

– And this, too, is, honestly, unexpected. Still, Krasnodar played at home, where they play very well. It’s one of those teams that gets a lot of fans. And I still thought that they would beat Ural. Considering that “Ural” in the last matches plays unsuccessfully. But the more significant is the point that Gancharenko’s team won.

I really like Krasnodar in terms of the content of the game. We had a good game against Spartak in the last round. If it were not for the referee’s mistakes, probably, Krasnodar in Moscow could have taken one point from Spartak; I’m not sure that the Spartacists were supposed to win there. I think you will agree with me because they played very well. They “Spartak” just replayed. They didn’t run across, no, they just overplayed. And as a coach, it was very pleasant for me to watch them play.