Thursday, 14th February, 2013
Zenit St. Petersburg coach Luciano Spalletti has warned his team that Liverpool are a strong side and Luis Suarez must be watched closely.
The Russian champions host Liverpool this evening in the first leg of their Round of 32 Europa League tie.
Spalletti will be aiming for his side to earn a good result to take to Anfield for the second leg, but the Italian tactician is under no illusions over the size of the task awaiting his players, having labelled Liverpool as a "great" side.
"If our defenders give Suarez time to take the ball, turn and play the way he wants, he can create a lot of problems for us", admitted Spalletti in his pre-match press conference.
"But for Zenit, this is another important and interesting challenge.
"Liverpool are a great team, but both teams have strong players. So we need to play a really strong and good match."
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Spalletti then expressed his admiration for the Reds, shrugging off their recent 2-0 loss against West Brom.
"Liverpool are a great team and you can see that they have good players who are of a very high level.
"In their last game, Liverpool played really well until the moment when [Steven] Gerrard missed a penalty."
Zenit will hope to get quickly up to competitive football speed, with the club still on the Russian Premier League’s winter break.
Having last played in early December, Zenit’s next Russian Premier League game is not until early March, meaning they have filled their time with winter training camps and friendlies.
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