This weekend Spartak and Zenit will face each other on the soccer field. Saint Petersburg is going through a clear crisis at the start of the championship, but the rojiblancos are confidently in the leading group. However, they also experienced significant difficulties in the last match with Ural. Before the match, the legendary Spartak footballer Andrey Tikhonov, in an exclusive interview with Soviet Sport, told what to expect from the upcoming derby between the two capitals, answered whether St. Petersburg could cope with its personnel crisis, and assessed the likelihood of a new Arbitration scandal in the history of the confrontation.
– What do you expect from the game “Spartacus” and “Zenith”? In fact, this is the main matchup at the start of the championship. Who do you think is your favourite?
– There is no favorite in this game, both teams deserve it. There were already moments in which Zenit lost in some games. And Spartak failed, for example, at the end of the match with Ural. Unexpected, by the way.
Nobody expected the game that Spartak showed at the beginning of the season. And with such a game, no one expected that everything would end like this with Ural. Maybe the fans or the experts expected it, but I didn’t. I would like to see Spartak’s reaction to the defeat in Yekaterinburg.
FC “Spartak”
Who will win? I don’t know. Sometimes they say that the strongest will win, but I still don’t see the strongest. Perhaps someone will be more lucky, someone will squeeze more out of himself. It is in such games that the football character is manifested.
– Many times in the matches of these teams, soccer becomes MMA, do you expect something like this this weekend?
– I would like to see a nice match on both sides, so that there is football, so that they do not turn into fights, so that there is no football mud. I understand that the confrontation between Spartak and Zenit is getting brighter, but it would still be nice to avoid foul play, and more fights. So another ESC will have to deal with it. It’s better not to. After the match, it is interesting to read about the match, and not about scandals, intrigues and investigations. I just want to see a beautiful game.
– Can the numerous personnel problems at Zenit play against Spartak, because this season the team has dismantled, since many leaders have left?
– Zenit has assembled quite quality players. Look who’s on the bench. Some of the national team players sat on the bench when Malcolm and Daler Kuzyaev played. Yes, they left, so what? All teams have problems.
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Spartak took perhaps some good players, but, as expected, no one was acquired in the central backcourt. We see these problems, we see what is happening in the Spartak defense. Teams deserve each other. Let’s see, it will be very interesting.
– What do you expect from arbitration? In the last match between Zenit and Fakel, there was a rather ambiguous decision by the judges. Many fear that this could spoil the matchup.
– Let’s take a look. Of course, I would like the judges not to make decisions that affect the result. There is VAR, specialists. I want to believe that the arbitration will be of great quality. The VAR is still there and it should help. But as often happens, something incomprehensible can intervene, but again, let’s hope that everything goes well in this match.
