The head coach of the Zenit football club Sergey Semak spoke about the team’s loss to Betis in the first match of the 1/16 finals of the Europa League. According to him, the main problem was the weak defense.
“Badly entered the game. The beginning was unimportant – both in terms of attack and defense. Team and individual mistakes in defense led to the fact that we conceded three goals in the first half. It was difficult to recoup, even though we scored good goals. We could have hoped for a better result, we didn’t lose to Betis in moments. But the game in defense prevented victory, ”Sport-Express quotes him as saying.
After serious mistakes in the first half, it was decided to change tactics and revise the composition of the defense, Semak said.
At the end of the game, the head coach decided to bet on attacking players and left three defenders on the field instead of the traditional four.
“Something had to be done not to get three more [гола] in the second half. We made changes based on the possibilities,” he explained.
Earlier Thursday, Zenit lost to Real Betis in the first leg of the Europa League play-off round 2-3.
The Spaniards scored three goals in the first half. By the 18th minute, the guests were leading 2:0, then the Petersburgers equalized the score, but in the 41st minute, Betis took the lead again. There were no goals in the second half.
Guido Rodriguez, Willian José and Andres Guardado scored in Betis. In turn, Artem Dzyuba played one goal in the 25th minute, and three minutes later Malcolm scored.
The second leg will take place on February 24 in Seville at the home arena of Betis. Since this season, the away goals rule has not been applied in European competition.
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
