"It seemed to me that Spartak underestimated us a bit."

Last weekend, Baltika Kaliningrad defeated Spartak Moscow (3-0) in the Russian Championship for the first time since 1996. The club's coach Andrei Talalaev beat the red-whites for the first time in his coaching career. As a result, this game became the most discussed in the second round of the RPL. Referee Sergey Karasev sent off newly minted Spartak player Anton Zabolotny at the very beginning of the match and showed red and white midfielder Marquinhos a second yellow card 30 minutes before the end. After the meeting, Levi Garcia, the striker of the capital's club, called such refereeing "unfair." Izvestia and Sport-Express discussed all the details of this exciting game with Baltika head coach Andrey Talalaev.

— Some time after the resounding victory, can you formulate the main reason for this result?

— The first is the very good work of my players. What they showed in the second round in a row is close to our ideal. The second is the right game plan. Well, as it seemed to me, Spartak underestimated us a little.

— Did it immediately catch your eye?

— Well, yes. It was obvious that the Muscovites turned on when there were ten of them left. That's when we saw the true level of Spartak's players.

— The key moment of the match?

— The first goal conceded by Spartak.

— Is it a goal, and not the removal of Zabolotny?

— In my opinion, the game was played in approximately the same way before the removal. We entered this match well, we were very active in the first 10 minutes. They carried their attacks to the entrance to the penalty area of the hosts. And there was nothing at our gate. I was satisfied with the actions of the wards.

— Did you expect exactly such a composition from Stankovich — with Zabolotny as a center forward?

— There were two positions that raised certain questions. Solari or Levi Garcia and Zabolotny or Ugalde. And the rest was generally readable. The red-and-whites played good football against Makhachkala. That's what we've been preparing for.

— Why did you doubt that Solari would make it to the start?

— We were thinking. He looks great when he has free zones. I thought that Spartak understood that we would not provide such zones to the Argentinian.

— So the early replacement of Solari after the removal of Zabolotny was not a surprise to you?

— To be honest, I was concentrating on the Baltika game, on our plan for this match. First of all, we started from ourselves. The task was to move the ball faster.

— Did it work?

- yes. I was looking at the statistics just before your call. It's clear that we played 11 against 10 in the first half. Nevertheless, we have never had such a fast ball movement before!

— Sergey Pryakhin was injured in the match against Dynamo. Was there a dilemma, who should replace him? Or did they decide on Maxim Petrov pretty quickly?

— We "rolled" two options. No, not even three. We chose it right up to the installation. We have good competition now. It's just that a few diverse players applied for this role: Max Petrov, Yenne and Yura Kovalev. The same Kovalev can play lower, on the right and on the left. That's why we kept it in reserve in case of force majeure. As a result, they bet on Max. I think we did not lose. It's not a bad match in his performance. If you remove only one sawn-off shotgun, after which the owners ran away two into one, in general, Petrov was very useful.

— What have you done with Sousse, who is doing something incredible on the right flank in the second round in a row? In the FNL, you must admit, he didn't do that.

— And I would not focus on Vladislav specifically. Now his performance has simply improved. And he had given large volumes before. He always plowed his brow at a fairly high speed. It's just that now the specifics have been added. This is largely a consequence of good cooperation between Saus and his partners. We should not forget that Varatynov does a lot of work behind his back, which gives Vlad the opportunity to get involved more often. One pulls out, the other insures.

Everyone mostly notes Sausi's game in attack, but I would evaluate it more comprehensively. I have already mentioned my interactions with Varatynov. But Pryakhin should also be noted. Sergey cleared the South zone well in the match against Dynamo. The boys, knowing their partner's strengths, supply him with passes in time. The so-called transmission timing.

— Before the game, did you realize that Saus would create a tangible advantage for you on the right flank, as he would outplay his counterpart, Mangash? There was one episode back in the first half when your football player quite easily escaped from the Portuguese, although he initially had a head start.

— Now I have the numbers in front of my eyes. You're talking about attacking from the right flank, but we made more passes to the penalty area from the left. The right flank is famous for the episode, and the left is famous for its activity. It is not necessary to run quickly along your own edge, to get ahead of your opponent. For example, the left-back Zivic, who came on as a substitute, rolled eight passes into the penalty area, four of which passed. As a result, he has one assist to his credit.

After all, why do we love football so much? Everyone sees something different in him, right? To sum up, I can say that we played well on the flanks against Spartak. That's all.

— Did you prepare for Marquinhos on purpose?

— We were preparing for the Spartak rectangle. This is when Barco goes down, Marquinhos goes higher, and Mangash goes up too. And the design is complemented by Martins running into the penalty area.

We were preparing for this, not specifically for Marquinhos. He had the same setup as Bitello from Dynamo. Our players had to finish playing with him in the areas where Marquinhos went. He probably began to shift from the flank to the middle more often in the spring, and he diversified his game a little. That's what our guys focused on. As it is, we know the Spartacist's trump cards well. Active, aggressive, effective one-on-one. All this is still with him.

— By the way, Marquinhos' second yellow card is quite controversial. Some experts believe that the Brazilian should not have been removed, as the South African, on whom he fouled, got into an offside position.

— I don't discuss judicial decisions. You know that we are not allowed to criticize or scold referees. You can only praise.

— So you are not ready to answer the question, did you like Karasev's work?

— You see, it's not about individual episodes, decisions. And in the line of conduct that one or another arbitrator chooses. I was at the Spartak – Dynamo Makhachkala match. And it was absolutely clear to me what Kazartsev was doing. That's why I praised him later in the TV studio. The referee immediately set a certain standard for martial arts and followed it for the entire 90 minutes.

The same thing happened in our match with the red and white. Both our players and the hosts were punished with cards in similar situations. This is called a sequence. If I see that some requirements are imposed on one team and others on another, I can say this publicly. But that wasn't the case here.

— Egor Titov noticed that Varus and Karasev helped Spartak by not scoring Baltika's goal before the break.

— I don't see the point in sorting it out. Spartak players will say that the guests have fouled out. My charges won't agree. It's football. I was quite far from the scene of the events... If we look at the episode from different angles, then we can draw different conclusions. If you review the moment from a shared camera, nothing is clear at all! As a result, the verdict was as follows. It's good that this ball wasn't the only one in the match.

— The question about Anton Zabolotny. He has already become some kind of meme in the Spartacist environment. Many initially did not understand why the red and white acquired this striker. And after the early removal... Is it true that you wanted to see Zabolotny at Baltika in the summer?

— I don't like the message in your question. Why a "meme"? For me, Anton Zabolotny is a good football player. What does the "Spartak meme" have to do with it? By the way, he was one of the most enthusiastic players in the red and white team. It was immediately obvious.

It so happened that the charge played against him. In fact, the episode looked scary. It's just that Beveev got out a little bit. If he had stayed in the same position at the moment of contact, then the leg would have folded not to the side, but back. The extent of the damage would have been much more serious. We already had to replace him, and now he is undergoing an examination. That's hard. The boys have been preparing for a month, and then they drop out in one particular game... Pryakhin and Mendel are already in the infirmary. Now Beway is in question. But, again, thank God, Mingiyan has good coordination. He managed to spin, as they say. The leg did not go backwards, but to the side.

— So you wanted to invite Zabolotny to Baltika?

— Not only to Baltika. I used to invite him to Khimki, to Akhmat. I like big strikers. They create an additional advantage when you need to put the squeeze on your opponents. Therefore, I want to wish good luck to both Anton and Spartak in the future.

— After the first season in the RPL, Fakel began to be called "the insolents from Voronezh." What epithet would you like to apply to Baltika?

— I just want to remind you that Baltika is a team from the whole region. And the epithets... Football is probably the most popular sport because everyone is looking for something different in it. Someone likes arrogance, someone likes grace, recklessness, intelligence. The more words of praise, the better for us. The most important thing is that people don't remain indifferent to us. You saw how Baltika was supported in Moscow. Can you imagine what will happen at the first home game of the season? The team is really looking forward to meeting with its fans.