Miodrag Bozovic: "The Cup games leave no right for a mistake"

Lokomotiv beat Ufa in the 1/8 leg of the Russian Cup. At the post-match press conference the Railwaymen's head coach Miodrag Bozovic commented on the lineup and complained of the weather in Bashkiria.

- It's hard to comment on the game because the weather conditions were really bad, - said Bozovic. - The fog didn't allow us to see the field, and even when we scored everybody on the bench kept asking one another who was the scorer. I don't know whether the fans saw anything. To be honest, that's the first time in my career that my team plays in the fog. I've been through rain, snow, hail, but not that thick fog. Besides, the turf was hard, and not always did it allow for a good play. But this was true for both us and Ufa.

Today we played in the 1/8 leg of the Russian Cup, and the victory was vital. This is a tournament where you cannot make mistakes. If you lose once - say good-bye. Today we simply had to win. I think we deserved it.

- Can you say that Lokomotiv didn't put much effort into the victory?
- You can say this no matter how a team performs, but we needed that victory. And we didn't really care how. It's difficult to play against Ufa at their turf, they are hard, they have good players and a competent coach.

- Why didn't Ndoye and Niasse play this time? Did you decide to keep them for the championship?
- No. It's simply because Pavlyuchenko works really hard during trainings, and it's great that we can give a chance and playing time to all of our strikers.