— Congratulations on the win and on a great game. Can you name the best three or four matches from the season?
— First I want to thank the players for the work that they have done, the way that they have welcomed me and accepted my methods, and my way of working, we were very close last year to becoming champions, but we had a few more steps to go. And this year since the very first game we have been in first place. We have a very good club and we have great players and I think that we have separated ourselves from our opponents. I would like to thank my staff, we all had high ambitions. This is what everybody sets for in their life. It is very important for me personally, it is very important for me to have achieved this title. The celebrations are not going to happen until the last day, we think that’s more appropriate. We still have two very serious games to play. We are going to let the players go and see their families and spend time and have dinner with one another and then against «Lokomotiv» we will celebrate. We have had different kinds of matches, we started very strong and broke some records and had seven wins in a row, we beat all of our main rivals, we have beaten them at home and away, with «Krasnodar» , we had a great result here and with CSKA here as well. So I think that main threat for the title was ourselves. Like today for example, we had so many chances when we could have had more goals. We really wanted to win the Europa League and I think we were really close, I think we were the better team. But the main goal is done, we have the star on our emblem. And I want to congratulate everyone on the win.
— Congratulations. It’s an excellent moment that has not happened here in a couple of years. But, What dod you think about today’s game? Does the tie still give the same kind of celebration as it would if you had won?
— No, we played very well except for the goal in the last minute, but that's something that happens. Everybody wanted to win, but today was enough because «Amkar» drew against «Krasnodar» . All of the bottom teams are fighting for points and it is difficult, the most important thing is to win the title and we want to get a good result. But there are teams that fight and create good chances and problems, if we had had a 2:0 lead, we would have lost them, but playing at a 1:0 is a tough situation. But no matter what happened, the objective was achieved.
— Andrey, congratulations! Come on let’s smile! The championship has been going for more than 9 months. Today you have two holidays, your son was born yesterday. Does the birth of a son help coaches, give them some positive emotions, does it help the players too?
— Yeah I think so you know as a professional I always have to separate personal from professional emotions. I don’t like to express a lot of emotions because that’s my personal life, I do that a bit more often because there is interest from fans and so I use some social media to do this. Most of us have a lot of people who support us and those are the ones that we want to share these kinds of moments with and that’s why it is very important that we spend time with them. Witsel, Neto, Shatov, Anyukov have all had kids recently. We saw Shatov score the other day and then he kissed his tattoo that he got in honour of his son. So I think that this does have a positive impact, the way that we share it is different for each of us, but it is of course very good for everyone.
— Congratulations on the title. You already spoke about the best matches this year — what was the toughest period for you this year. It’s been four years since you last won the title, what is the biggest difference between the Villas-Boas that won with Porto and the Villas-Boas that is in front of us right now?
— I think the most difficult part of the season was around November when we lost to «Terek» 3:0 at home. We were not having consistent results, we were drawing, losing. This was the worst moment for the team, it is very difficult also when the vacation is near in December and people tend to relax and stop. The losses to «Terek» and «Mordovia» were probably our lowest points of the season. We managed to come back very strong because we worked very well in Qatar and in our Winter training camps. The results in the Europa League and the results that we have had against our direct rivals, all these wins were incredibly important for the title. We showed that we are much stronger than our opponents. The best part was September and October and right now as well. The main difference between me personally now is that I am a much better coach, I had a very good experience in Chelsea and Tottenham. I had personal setbacks, personal development and professional development as well but I have come back stronger and with the players as well.
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