Forward of Khimki near Moscow, Alexander Dolgov, after the FONBET Russian Cup match against PARI NN (1:1, 1:3 in the penalty shootout), joked that the tactics of playing from defense allows you to successfully resist teams like Zenit.

Khimki, after 17 rounds of the WORLD RPL, is 15th in the standings.

– Victory in the match of the Cup of Russia gives the club 10 million rubles, and you took a penalty kick. The fans are furious.

“I don’t know at all that money is given for winning. Fans are not paid this amount. No need to tie it, I scored or did not score a penalty. The same Smolov did not score at the World Cup. I decided to hit the same. If I had decided to hit the left corner, Nigmatullin would have guessed right. I don’t see much difference, I’m just a little unlucky,” Dolgov said.

– What results can you sum up, did you expect more in the first part of the championship?

– Of course. I would like to be higher in the table – 100%. It worked out the way it did. Now let’s rest a bit, work in the winter and show a good result in the second part of the championship.

– Which teams surprised you in 17 rounds?

– Lokomotiv surprises me in a negative direction – they are in the relegation zone, strange, of course. They should be in the top 5 without question. And in the positive – “Rostov”: a team without legionnaires, they are in third place. Well done.

– What about Zenith?

– Play from defense, as we did in the first round. You can play with them, I think. It turns out that Zenit’s competitors are Khimki and Akhmat. (smiles.) Seriously speaking, these are Spartak, Rostov and CSKA – they can give battle to Zenit. I do not have one hundred percent certainty that Semak’s team will become the champion this season. I hope there will be intrigue.

– Imagine that you are given the choice to go to any RPL team, where will you go?

– I have no club addictions. I will communicate with those who will contact me.

– Do you promise that Khimki will not be relegated?

— I can’t promise, but I will do my best so that we score the necessary points.

– If you were given the choice to invite any player from the world to your team, who would you take?

– I would not invite any of the football stars to Khimki, because we have a friendly and good team. We can handle it ourselves without big names, – quotes the words of Dolgov “RB Sport”.