Former Zenit and Russian national team goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev in an interview with , he said that it was not his goal to win the competition in the Russian national team of Igor Akinfeev .
Malafeev detained for Russian national team 29 games in which he conceded 24 goals. He was the national team’s main goalkeeper at the 2012 European Championship. Malafeev played three matches against the national teams of the Czech Republic, Poland and Greece, during which he conceded three goals.
– There was a time when you played at the Euros, not Akinfeev. Did you win the contest in 2012, or was it a coincidence?
This happened due to a combination of factors. I had a good year. In 2011, I was named one of the top five goalkeepers in the world by ESPN. Zenit and I won the league, played a good game against Porto in the Champions League, I had six clean sheets for the national team in qualifying.
2012 has also started rather well. The national team coach (Dick Advocaat – ) knew me and Igor had an injury. As a result, considering all this, preference was given to me. I used it or not? In any case, I did my best and I counted on myself. At the same time, there was no goal to win the competition from Igor and leave the gates of the Russian team behind. The goal was to bring results to the team with our game.
So now we are not discussing personal ambitions. I saw that Igor was stronger, but they put me there. Now I would definitely admit it. However, at that time we weren’t much different and the injury still bothered him. So, as far as I’m concerned, the coach’s decision was completely reasonable. If I was the lawyer, understanding the whole situation, I probably would have done the same, Malafeev told .
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Source : MatchTV
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