Xavi Pascual: "We are trying to continue improving our game"

Zenit’s head coach shared his impressions after game with PARMA (100:56).

— First of all, I want to thank the fans for coming and I want to wish all the best to PARMA in the remaining part of the season. In the first half in general we played well in defense, but it was not easy to find the rhythm of the game. But step by step, from the second quarter, we changed the way of the game. We could take this important advantage. In the second half, we continued playing, working, trying to play good defense, good offense. In the second half, we continued to work, we tried to play well both in defense and in attack. And to continue seriously until the end of the game. And we treated the game seriously until the very end.

— We saw many different combinations of players today, why?

— Every game is different and we are trying to help all the players to find the good shape. We are trying to push all the players to be in the highest level and we will need all of them until the end of the season.

— For the third time in a home game this season your team gained 100 points. Why do you think in offense Zenit plays so successfully at home?

— Okay, you know, we are trying to continue improving our game, defense, to be better defensively and to be better offensively. Every game we are trying to do, sometimes it's possible, sometimes it's not. We continue to make progress in our game, whether it's defense or attack. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don't. For me it's a little bit anecdotic, it's not so important. The important thing is to try to be every day better than the day before. For us, the most important thing is to become better in every match than in the previous one.

— You let Egor Ryzhov to play some time in the final quarter. Do you like his progress and do you think in the future games he will get more extra time to play?

— The season is going to be long and it's going to be one moment that we will need him a lot. To be ready for this level, the players need to work a lot. And to use, especially the young players, to use any opportunity to show that they are over here. So every practice, every day, every situation, they need to show something and they need to work hard. And this is what we are trying to put in his mind: to be every day better, to work hard, and to be ready. Because it is going to be one day, as I said before, that we will need to win or lose with him.

— We haven't seen Xavier today. Is it a tactical decision or something happened to him?

— In the last part of the game in Kazan he didn't play, he couldn't play because he had some problems. We'll see if he's going to play Sunday or not, he's improving, but still questionable.