Zenit St Petersburg vs Shakhtar Donetsk preview - Spaletti envious of Lucescu

Posted Tuesday, November 01, 2011 by PA

Shakhtar Donetsk may be bottom of their Champions League group and missing key players, but Zenit St Petersburg boss Luciano Spaletti is still envious of opposite number Mircea Lucescu.

Shakhtar are without a win in Group G after being held to a 2-2 draw at home by Zenit last time out.

On top of that, Mircea will be without the services of first-teamers Fernandinho, Jadson and Dmytro Chygrynskiy for the clash at the Petrovski Stadion.

But Spaletti, whose side sit second behind surprise leaders APOEL Nicosia, told his club's website: "It won't weaken them at all.

"The problem of my colleague from Shakhtar is that he has to leave such players as (Alex) Teixiera, for example, on the bench.

"These players are no worse than the ones who are playing in the starting team.

"Moreover, I think that having such players ready to come off the bench is only a plus for Shakhtar, since they'll have the motivation to come on the pitch and prove that the coach made a mistake leaving them on the bench to start.

"I know Lucescu very well. He's an old football wolf. But you probably don't know that we have the emblem of a lion's head as a team symbol. So we'll see how the wolf does in the lion's den. We'll see who's stronger."

Zenit have been receiving plenty of plaudits for their football in recent weeks, something which has left Spaletti somewhat bemused.

He is not worried the compliments will go to his players' heads, though.

"I don't really understand this theory about recent weeks," he said. "My team has been playing well for two years already.

"We know perfectly well what we're doing, and we know what difficulties we face both in the domestic league and the Champions League.

"My players will never make the mistake of underestimating their opponent or being too self-confident. They know that if I see that, I'll be upset.

"You can be totally sure that those players who come out tomorrow will fight to the death in order to win. Don't be concerned about our will to win."

Spaletti has some injury worries of his own, with Alexander Kerzhakov out and Danny doubtful, though he said there was no truth in speculation Roman Shirokov was unwell.

The absence of Kerzhakov in particular will be a boost to Shakhtar.

Defender Razvan Rat told the Shakhtar website: "Kerzhakov is one of the Zenit leaders. Perhaps, he is their key player."

He added: "Zenit is a good, strong team, with classy and skilful players. They are well prepared physically. We will have to put in a lot of effort as well as being up to the mark defensively."