Alexander Zayakin: "We played carefully in defense and waited for mistakes from the opponent"

— First of all, I would like to congratulate all Dynamo fans on their victory! They have two holidays: when Dynamo wins and when Spartak loses. We are very grateful to them, there were a lot of them in the stands today, we constantly felt their support.

As for the game, we endured it somewhere today, sat down in the middle and low block, waited for mistakes from Spartak. We understood that the opponent has individually strong players who need to be closed, which is why we played especially carefully in defense. The defense is a big smartass in this game, as is the whole team in principle. There was a task, the team completed it.

There were moments in the second half when they could have scored more. We tried not to fall too low when leaving the middle block, while, if possible, running away in quick attacks. That's what they did, and Katya Sergeeva and Dana Petrova almost had enough to realize their moments. We also prepared for the standards of Spartak, which the team has very good. Here, too, they coped, the girls are great fellows!

During the break, I told the team to play football. In the first half, we slipped into a hit–and-run game, but this is not our philosophy, we don't want to play like that. We want the girls to play football, so we told them to control the ball more, not to lose it in unnecessary situations, to take away the unforced losses. And they fulfilled this instruction, more moments began to appear, and thanks to this they got this victory.

For full information about the starting lineups and the events of the meeting, see the match center.