Sunday 29 April 2012

Spalletti Credits Dynamo Character


Team character was the key to Russian Premier League champions Zenit St. Petersburg's dominant season, coach said after the club clinched their second-straight title Saturday.

A hard-fought 2-1 win over Dynamo Moscow gave Zenit an unassailable 15-point lead with three games remaining, a victory they achieved despite playing most of the second half with ten men.

"I have a team of huge character," an emotional Spalletti said in the dressing room.

"They are a strong team that has the kind of character that we showed in today's game. Besides our quality, besides our strength, we have character. You don't get anywhere without it."

In an unusually long season that lasted for 18 months to ease the switch from a summer to a winter league, Zenit have racked up 23 wins in 41 matches so far.

They initially trailed CSKA but overtook in September with a gritty 3-2 win at Rubin Kazan, never relinquishing the lead thereafter.

One of just three defeats was imposed upon the club after they fielded an ineligible player during a 1-1 draw against CSKA last April. The league canceled the result and credited CSKA with a default 3-0 win.

The only other teams to take all three points off the northern side were relegation-threatened Tom Tomsk, who won 2-1 at home last May, and Lokomotiv, who won 4-2 in September.

"We were the team that scored the most, that conceded the least, the team that led for most of the championship and won with games to spare, so we really need to congratulate all the guys, because they really deserve it," said Spalletti, who joined Zenit from Italian side AS Roma in 2009.

"I know my team played two really brilliant seasons, but this one is especially good," the 53-year-old said.

"What's particular about it is that it has lasted a year and a half. It was a tough championship, and there were a lot of risks because we won, and there was the threat of us losing our concentration."

Zenit, sponsored by Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom, snapped Rubin Kazan's two-title streak by winning the 2010 championship by six points from CSKA.

Zenit won this year's title with three matches to spare but could have secured the title in any of the last four weekends, though results conspired against them.

They have hit five goals in three matches, two consecutively in August against Krylya Sovetov and FC Krasnodar, and might have had the league's top scorer if it weren't for injury.

Alexander Kerzhakov, who fittingly scored what turned out to be the winner against Dynamo on Saturday, has 22 goals, just five short of CSKA striker Seydou Doumbia despite months out with an ankle problem before Christmas.

"Some things came off today, some things didn't. But we won, that's all that matters," said Kerzhakov.

Asked whether he had expected to be pushed harder for the title, Kerzhakov said: "On the whole, yes."

"We expected the championship would be better attended by the supporters with less predictable results. It turned out that all our opponents dropped points and we won."

Belgian defender Nicolas Lombaerts, a key part of Zenit's mean back four who has played 37 of 41 league games, said the extra-long season had taken its toll but its had been worth it.

"It was new but we knew that it would be really difficult for everybody, but we showed in these playoffs that we the strongest team. Now we are 15 points ahead, that means we deserve to be champions."

A milestone of Zenit's season was the return of hometown player Andrei Arshavin, who arrived out of form in the winter break, on loan from Arsenal to the end of the season.

Initially used sparingly by Spalletti, Arshavin has rediscovered his form and made telling contributions to the season's run-in, scoring twice and getting two assists in seven games.

"I'm playing well now," said Arshavin, who also won the title with Zenit in 2010. "I'm in a wonderful mood."

He criticized the poor state of the pitches after the winter break, suggesting they prevented the team from sealing the title sooner.

"The result [winning the league] isn't bad, but it was hard, because the pitches hindered us."

He said he would decide his future after Euro 2012, where he is expected to figure heavily for Russia.

Meanwhile, defensive midfielder Igor Denisov, a mainstay in the Zenit and Russian national teams, said he was only happy to see thousands of fans spill on the pitch at the Petrovsky Stadium at the final whistle Saturday.

"I saw everything and I was celebrating with them. It's totally normal. We are champions. Today, anything goes!"

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