Sandro Schwarz: Bronze medals are good for the team

— I want to congratulate Sochi on the second place. They deserved to win today. We started the game well and took an early lead. The team could have scored more. After that, the game turned out to be completely different: we missed the initiative, were not active enough and made many simple mistakes. We lost aerial duels. Sochi have a fairly experienced team, and they were able to capitalise on our mistakes. In the second half, we started playing aggressively, tried to come from behind, but the red card shown to our player made our mission impossible.

I would like to thank the fans who filled the stands today. We felt their sincere support even after the end of the match. Of course, we are disappointed at not winning silver medals. We have to learn from such matches. Now we need to come to the Cup final against Spartak with clear thoughts.

Drawing a line under the RPL season, I think we have achieved quite serious progress, which was confirmed by bronze medals. I am proud of my team.

— What were your feelings when you were awarded the bronze medal?

— The first feeling was disappointment because we didn't win silver medals. But if we look at the difficult situation cold-bloodedly, I think that bronze medals are good for the team. We felt each other's support all together – I mean players, coaching staff, administrative staff. We fought throughout the season and deserved these medals.

The team has achieved it as a whole unit. I should note that Andrey Voronin and Ivan Ordets did much for these medals. The last few weeks have shown that we can take the blow and show character. We have to go through this thorny path and come to the Cup final with right thoughts.

— The team conceded 16 goals in the last four RPL matches. What do you see as the reason? How can this situation be corrected?

— Unfortunately, we concede too much in the last matches. We don't play compactly and aggressively. Now we have to analyze our game in order to work on these mistakes and prepare for the match against Spartak.

— Have you already made a decision about the goalkeeper to start the Cup final?

— We have a long training week ahead of us and we will make this decision on Saturday.

— There is a feeling that the team dropped functionally, and mistakes in defense are systemic. What do you think about it?

— There is no need to worry about the team’s state before the match against Spartak. Yes, we have conceded a lot of goals in recent encounters, and we are critically analyzing our play. First of all, we need to analyze these conceded goals, shift it to the training process, adjust some aspects and come to the last match of the season with solid defense. We have shown more than once during the season that we are able to be tenacious and disciplined in defense.

— What transfers do you want to see for the team?

— I'm not thinking about transfers right now. I trust all the guys in our team. We need to look positively at what is happening, direct all our energy to the right path. Unfortunately, this unpleasant run took place at the end of the season. Now we need to prepare the team for the final game against Spartak.