Luciano Spalletti was left with no criticism for his Zenit St Petersburg side, as they were frustrated by an Atletico Madrid that ‘sat back while we attacked’.
Los Colchoneros played out a 1-1 draw in Russia, with Adrian Lopez’s opener in the second half cancelled out by Toby Alderweireld’s own goal.
“My team played well against a very strong side. If you say that we lacked shots on goal then I can tell you that shots on goals are just statistics,” Zenit boss Spalletti stated post-match.
“Taking all the build-up situations into account, we can see that Zenit attacked a lot.
“We did what we could. We tried hard to play football, to play positively. We made dangerous runs in behind their defenders, we played a passing game and we tried to attack in different ways, but we could not find the breakthrough.
“I'm happy that my team played football. Some things did not work out, but we played like we had to.
“We saw a match at a pretty high level and we should not pay too much attention to the weather. Both sides played well and in an organised way.
“Atletico sat back while we attacked because we needed to get a result. They tried to attack on the break when the opportunities arose.
“In all three [home] games we produced good football and that is what matters to me.”
