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Andrey Pyatnitsky, a chief coach of Spartak-95, has informed about readiness for the tournament devoted to the 90th anniversary of the club.

— Within my memory this is the first junior tournament of such level in Moscow, - Pyatnitsky says. – All participating teams represent different schools and adhere to different styles. That is why, as a coach, I will learn something new in each match. And our guys will gain invaluable experiences from games with such serious opponents. 

— There is only a week left before the tournament. How do you assess readiness of the team?  

— As not bad. During a pause after termination of Moscow winter championship, where we became champions, we have been trying to maintain readiness of our football players at a good level. 

— Will you be able to count on all football players of your team at these competitions?

— Unfortunately, we won’t count fully on some team leaders. Alexander Kogonia hasn’t been training for a long period, as he has been recovering from his injury, and Denis Davydov has been injured quite recently, when he was in the disposition of Russia’s junior national team. These players will be included in the team entry form: we do count on them. But I’m afraid they won’t be able to play to their full potential at this tournament.    

—Spartak’s team entry form for this tournament contains several football players of 1996 class. What is the reason?

— The inclusion of football players, who are one year younger, in a team entry form for an international tournament constitutes a normal practice both in this country and in Europe. Anton Fyedotov, a guard born in the year of 1996, has been playing for our team on a constant basis, moreover, he has been playing successfully.  All football players of Spartak-96, whom we’ll be involved in the tournament, are members of Russia’s junior national team and leaders in their own team. Moreover, each participating team of this tournament has players of this age.     

— Football players born in the year of 1996 will return from the disposition of the junior national team this week only, and the team will face lack of time to achieve good team work...

— Certainly, some rough edges in the game are possible, as these football players haven’t been played side-by-side before. I think this challenge is addressable. When the guys return back from the national team, a paramount task will be to foster their recovery, both physical and moral. Because when they play for the national team at an international tournament they spend not only their forces, but a large volume of emotions as well.  

— Are you planning to arrange the exhibition/friendly game this week to prepare for the tournament?

— The test match will be arranged definitely during this time. A selection of an opponent is still an open issue: we have to define what level of a sparring partner we need: who is weaker to enable us to practice coherent team work, or, on the contrary, a strong one in order to test the company in training realism. We’ll make this decision in the nearest future.  

— How do you assess your team determination?

— We had been informed well ahead of time that will be offered the opportunity to represent Spartak at the tournament devoted to the 90th anniversary of the club. Of course, the guys do realize this is a great responsibility and adapt their attitude correspondingly. Indeed, I’ve got some concerns that my guys may "burn out", therefore I’ve been trying to distract their attention somehow.   

— Barcelona is one of leaders of European junior football. In your opinion, how may Spartak defeat this team?