Lodygin: PSV win just the start for Zenit
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Article summary
Goalkeeper Yuri Lodygin said FC Zenit have started as they mean to go on after overwhelming PSV Eindhoven, a display he and Danny put down to their team ethos.
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Article body
• Yuri Lodygin and Danny hailed an impressive team effort from Zenit
• Lodygin says his 61st-minute penalty save was due to training the previous day
• Zenit seal 4-0 aggregate win to maintain 100% record of reaching last 16
• Luuk de Jong rues luck; Jetro Willems laments lack of effort
• Follow Friday's round of 16 draw on UEFA.com, with live streaming from 13.00CET
Yuri Lodygin, Zenit goalkeeper
It is just the first step because we want to go far in this competition. We won both matches on merit and it is a real joy for me. The lads did their best in both games. They did all the tactical things, all the coach asked us to do, all that we discussed between us; they covered for each other and everybody worked hard. I expected a tougher match but our class told.
Yesterday I practiced facing three or four penalties in training. After I had saved either the second or third to my right the coach told me to leave on a high note. So I left and today I saved to my right ... It was nice, and I am very happy with two clean sheets. Thanks to the team, well done everybody!
Danny, Zenit midfielder
We know that at home, with our support, we play very well. It's a good result and in truth we did not expect such a scoreline because we knew we were up against a good team with great players. It was only our second game of the year so we were physically up to speed also our mentality was spot on. All the players did exactly what the coach told us to.
Luuk de Jong, PSV forward
Zenit let us feel like we were playing well and then, out of nothing, they score. That's the quality of Zenit. In the first half we had a goal disallowed. If we had gone 1-0 up it would have been a totally different game. They scored but nothing changed: we knew we [still] had to score two goals.
Within five minutes of the restart it was 2-0 and the game was almost over. We had a chance with the penalty and if I had scored then maybe something could have happened – but it just wasn't our night.
Jetro Willems, PSV defender
It's disappointing. Like in the first leg, we played well in the first half, we did our job, but in the second half we gave it away. Against a team like Zenit you cannot give 50%, you need to give 100%. We had to kill off their front line but we just let them play, the defence.
