“The match for the Super Cup raised questions for Semak” – Gadzhiev

Zenit and CSKA have not yet reached their usual level, Honored Coach of Russia Gadzhi Gadzhiev told Euro‑Football.Ru.

On Saturday in Kazan, Zenit defeated CSKA in the match for the OLIMPBET Russian Super Cup. The main time of the match ended with a score of 0:0, the club from St. Petersburg won on penalties – 5:4.

– What conclusions can be drawn from the Super Bowl match?

“I saw what I expected to see. The first match was expected to be approximately equal. Because this is the beginning of the season, and none of the teams have yet reached their highest possible level.

— Did you think that the game was equal?

– Maybe the army team were a little closer to victory in terms of the number of chances. As for the team control of the ball, I liked Zenit better. There was a lot of marriage due to the fact that there was a lot of struggle. This is due to the fact that physical readiness at the moment is slightly higher than game readiness.

– St. Petersburg did not create almost a single scoring chance, which was unusual to see. Didn’t it seem to you that Zenit is not yet ready for the season?

– I didn’t think so. It’s just that CSKA played very well in defense, which is typical for Fedotov. If you remember how his teams played against Zenit, they looked pretty good. His teams are always very well organized. It showed up in this game too. So we saw a good game of CSKA in defense. But both opponents have not yet reached their usual playing level.

– In terms of the game, which team did you like the most?

— I paid more attention to what problems the teams have. Here the physics plus or minus is the same. But if we take individual game episodes, we can recall the moment that CSKA created in the first half, when Kerzhakov bailed out. This moment was formed from the fact that the central defender of Zenit, instead of taking the ball away from the goal, took it to the central part. They won’t do that in the championship. That’s why I say that there is no game readiness. So serious conclusions on this match should not be done. Just like test matches. Although all these games raised questions for Semak.

The new season of the MIR RPL starts on July 21 with the Dynamo-Krasnodar match. Match TV will show live three matches of the first round: Lokomotiv – Rubin (July 22, 17:15), Akhmat – Wings of the Soviets (July 22, 19:45) and Sochi – “Baltika” (July 23, 19:45).