Akinfeev would like to repeat Rubin Kazan’s shock win against Spanish giants Barcelona two weeks ago.
“Their victory was very important for Russian football. Rubin Kazan showed their ability and managed to play like a top-class team in that match. It’s a great development for Russian football. It’s a great leap forward. Every time a club or the national team does something like that, it’s significant,” said Akinfeev to uefa.com.
“It’s for the press to speculate about the standings. Players have to play. They should not be studying tables, counting points and goals conceded. We have to play good football in every game. It’s eleven people who win and eleven who lose. If you want to count points, you should leave football straight away and go into the media.”
“The team needs some stability, so we hope that [Leonid] Slutski stays for a long time and brings it. You can see it from his work with FC Moscow and Krylya Sovetov Samara that he can turn middling teams into strong ones. I hope that he can get the best out of our club for a long time to come,” added Akinfeev.
“The last Champions League campaign was a bit off, but we were only one result short in the previous two. Both times were near misses, with fortune evading us. We’re eager to do better this time.”
