Sergey Karasev: "Satisfied with how we played on defense"

Zenit captain Sergey Karasev shared his emotions after the home victory over CSKA (81:77). The forward highlighted the team’s defensive play, told about the pressure before the match and thanked the fans for their support.

— First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to our fans for this amazing atmosphere, for these emotions, for their support. I know there’s a football match later tonight, but people still found time to come and cheer for us. That means a lot to us. As for the game — I think it was a great match for all the fans, for us and for CSKA, ahead of the playoffs, which are starting very soon. It’s really nice to win this mini-duel 3-1 during the season. It was a good game, a real playoff-type game. I think we should be satisfied, especially with how we played on defense and executed the game plan. Yes, there were mistakes — there’s no such thing as a game without them — but overall, our defensive efforts were what helped us win today.

— Looking back at this regular-season series against CSKA, you lost the first game but then won three in a row. How did you manage to adjust after that early-season defeat?

— That’s why we train, why we show up every day and work hard. With every game, we build on what we’ve worked on. Plus, our coach has a lot of tactical adjustments, and we prepare differently for each team — especially for CSKA. This has been a key rivalry for us in recent years, and we always give it our all. Defense is, first and foremost, about effort. You can come up with as many strategies as you want, but the most important thing is to fight and give 100%. If you do that, you can stop any player one-on-one, even without complex tactics. It all comes down to desire.

— Zenit has taken a big step toward winning the regular season. How important is that for the team?

— It’s extremely important. As you can see, with the kind of support and atmosphere we had today, that’s probably 50% of our success. The fans push us forward, so having home-court advantage is crucial. Especially since our only goal is always to win every game. That’s what we aim for.

— A couple of games ago, you mentioned that the winning streak was putting some psychological pressure on the team. Now Zenit has set a new club record with 16 consecutive wins. How did you handle the pressure today?

— Sometimes, when you go out for warm-ups, you can feel that the team or certain players aren’t mentally ready for the game. But today, when I stepped onto the court, I saw that everyone was locked in 100%. Honestly, before the game, I knew that if we played our basketball, we would win. There was no doubt about our focus, and I could really feel that. So, honestly, there was no anxiety. Everyone is a professional, and we all approached this game with full commitment.