Zenit St. Petersburg FC's Dutch trainer Dick Advocaat praised his team's performance in their 1:1 draw against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup semifinal first leg.
In Thursday's match Zenit leveled with the Germans in the second half through an own-goal by defender Lucio.
"After the 90 minutes I am very pleased with the way we played and the result we achieved here in Munich," the UEFA website quoted Advocaat as saying.
The trainer said that the team was nervous for the first 30 minutes, but pulled itself together and had several chances in the second half. The main problem facing Zenit in the return leg will be replacing disqualified players.
"We have to think about how we are going to replace the missing players like [Andrei] Arshavin and [Fernando] Ricksen - this is a big problem for us," Advocaat said.
"We do not have the same strength in depth as Bayern, who can replace eight players in the Bundesliga and are still strong enough to win."
Zenit, sponsored by Russian energy giant Gazprom, is playing in the semifinal in a major European competition for the first time in its history. The return match in St. Petersburg will be on May 1.
Zenit St. Petersburg FC's Dutch trainer Dick Advocaat praised his team's performance in their 1:1 draw against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup semifinal first leg.
