Just before heading out for the final training session at the Petrovsky Stadium in St. Petersburg, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Coach Shota Arveladze along with central defender Egor Filipenka spoke at the official prematch press conference.

Arveladze began by talking about the warm welcome the team has received so far: “It’s been great here so far and we have been taken care of so well since we have arrived. We’ve watched a number of Zenit’s recent matches especially since we last played against them in September. Of course, once you play each other, which we did, you get to know the other side a bit better.”

Zenit’s weakness:

“I’m not going to go into their weakness here. Even the best teams have some weak points and we know exactly what they are. We spoke to the players as to where we may be able to take advantage of our opponent, but I will only discuss these things after the match.”

Following the loss against Zenit on Matchday One:

“Following the Zenit match we had three very tough contests and we passed every test successfully. Over the last few weeks we didn’t do as well as we expected. We didn’t have a very long break because of the National Team games and we know that we won’t have a lot of time off in the league for a while now which will allow us to really work on a number of things. It was tough to come back from the loss to Zenit but we did it.”

About the weather:

“We can’t do anything about the weather. We aren’t the first to play in such weather and we have plenty of players who have played in these types of situations. I prefer the cold rather than the heat. Of course the conditions won’t be optimal for us but I believe that after the training session today we will get used to it as much as possible.”

Egor Filipenka who played for Spartak Moscow in the past talked about what type of welcome he will receive from the Zenit fans due to the fact he played for their rivals: “I feel fine even though I played for Spartak in the past. I follow the Russian League and I know that Spartak is battling for the league title and I hope that they will be able to win it.”