"It is more difficult to fight for survival in the RPL now than in the last two seasons"

The players of Fakel Voronezh are fighting for survival in the RPL for the third season already. In the previous two editions of the Russian championship, they managed to stay in the elite with the smallest budget of all participants - first through transition matches, and then directly, taking a saving 12th place. This season the team is on the 14th line in the zone of transitional matches, but since the end of September they have been performing well, losing only one meeting out of seven. However, only one victory was won, and the other five matches ended in a draw.

In an interview with Izvestia, Fakel midfielder Ilnur Alshin assessed the clubs' results, shared his impressions of the game against CSKA's star newcomer Miralem Pjanic and said that this season is more difficult for Voronezh than the previous two in the RPL.

- The draw in the last match with Dynamo, what emotions did you feel more? Satisfaction that we saved ourselves from defeat in the last seconds or disappointment that we failed to realize many chances at the other team's goal and did not win?

- Taking into account that we scored in the end, there is a certain satisfaction. But if we take the game as a whole, it seems to me that we had more chances, approaches - episodes where we could score. Therefore, we are disappointed with the loss of points.

- What prevents you from scoring more points, while you created many chances in almost every game this fall?

- We create chances, but we don't score. Maybe a little bit of bad luck somewhere. But, as they say, we will come to goals through hard work. I think, thanks to the goal in the end of the match with Dynamo we will be more relaxed and luck will come to us in the next matches.

- Are there any questions about the refereeing in the last games?

- There are always questions. But I'll keep it to myself.

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- Maybe you should express your position?

- Well, if we take it as a whole, then yes, there are questions. Unclear interpretations - the ball hits the hand, but in the game with Lokomotiv (1:2) a penalty is put in our goal for such a penalty at the end of the game, but in Dynamo's goal they did not put it in our favor. But what to say... There are competent people who are responsible for this direction. Let them deal with it.

- How to fight for survival in the RPL in this regard?

- Well, what can we do? Well, that's the way they judge, what can be done about it. Referees make mistakes, but everyone makes mistakes in their work. We, players, make mistakes, referees make mistakes. There is no point in emphasizing it. We just need to play our game, to show the quality of soccer, which we show in recent matches, only to realize chances and win. Then everything will be fine.

- Is it more difficult to fight for survival in the RPL this season than in the previous two seasons?

- I think the competition is stronger now. There are good teams in the second eight of the RPL. And this season everything is more difficult for us. But, I repeat, if we play the game we have been playing for the last couple of months, we can give good results. We need to start taking it all into account for the next two games - away against Dynamo Makhachkala and at home against CSKA. We need to play them as well as possible, win and go into the winter break with a good result. And we should also prepare for the spring in order to solve the problem of keeping a place in the RPL for the next season.

- You have already played with CSKA this season, having achieved an away draw (0:0) in October. At that time, newcomer Miralem Pjanic made his first start for CSKA. Did he look like himself from his star performances for Roma and Juventus?

- He didn't show much of himself. He went deep down the pitch, where there were free zones, and started his team's attacks. He plays at the expense of his qualities - good passes, diagonal and cutting. He is not a great dribbler, but he gives excellent passes - it is obvious. It is noticeable that Pjanic's level is still very high, even after a few months without game practice. Now, probably, he is still getting in shape. But even without super conditioning, Pjanic is Pjanic - he is a master. That's why we are especially glad that in that match Fakel managed to neutralize him and achieved an away draw with CSKA.

- Is he the most skillful player you have faced in the RPL?

- I like Carrascal at Dynamo. You can see that he is a great dribbler. And so there are a lot of great players in RPL.

- In August Fakel changed their head coach, Dmitry Pyatibratov, who returned to the team after leaving the season before last, replaced Igor Cherevchenko. The results improved not immediately, but somewhere from the beginning of October you started to score points steadily.

- You started to play more organized. Plus your physical condition became much better. And the fact that the results of Fakel seriously depend on the physical condition is a fact.