"I don't see any sensation in our successes"

This week, the Russian Football Cup hosted the matches of the fourth round of the "RPL Paths" group stage. One of the most striking confrontations was the meeting between CSKA Moscow and Kaliningrad Baltic. The Army team led 1-0 at home, but Baltika equalized at the end of regular time, and then achieved victory following a very long penalty shootout (10:9), in which it came to the point that the goalkeepers had to hit from the spot — Kaliningrad goalkeeper Ivan Kukushkin deflected a shot from his colleague Vladislav Torop, and then He scored the winning penalty.

Thus, Baltika scored the first two points in the current Cup. But their results in the national championship are much more interesting. Andrey Talalaev's team returned to the RPL following the results of last season. And in the Premier League, the team did not lose a single match in the first eight rounds, and four times it had to take the field against top clubs, having drawn away with Dynamo Moscow (1:1), as well as at home with Lokomotiv Moscow (1:1) and in the past weekend with Zenit St. Petersburg (0:0). In addition, in the summer, Baltika defeated Spartak Moscow on the road (3:0). And now it is in second place, three points behind the leading Krasnodar.

In an interview with Izvestia, Baltika midfielder Nikolai Titkov explained the secret of the Kaliningrad club's success and told whether he had any chances to play in his native Lokomotiv.

— Is the penalty shootout against CSKA the longest in your life?

— Yes, yes. I've never had anything like this before, to get to the goalkeepers, to their shots.

— How did Baltika manage to win back at the end of regular time and withstand such a long penalty shootout, bringing it to victory?

— Due to the character, we won back in the main time, and the penalty shootout is a lottery, but everyone trains it. We're definitely trying to practice penalties in practice. And, as we can see, it gave a result. Although you can't win without luck. Luck was on our side in the match against CSKA. Well, our goalkeeper Vanya is doing well. I took two penalties plus scored the winning goal.

— Can you explain why Baltika is going undefeated in the championship, even though almost a third of the competition has passed?

— We go out and do our job (smiles). Everything comes from the training process, through which we prepare for matches and achieve success. Everything is through work.

— Does it really happen when a team, just returning from the first league, does not lose the first eight rounds, although it played with top clubs in half of them?

— If that's the case, then it happens. We also prepare carefully for each match. That's why I don't see any direct sensation in our successes. I repeat, we are just doing our job — we go out on the field and go undefeated.

— What allows Baltika to play from a position of strength against rivals such as Dynamo Moscow, Spartak, Lokomotiv and Zenit?

— It's clear that we analyze our rivals, their strengths and weaknesses. And based on these reviews, we choose tactics, although in general we do not deviate from our game, trying to act as aggressively as possible in each match. We just play our football, we try not to leave it. And hence the result.

— What is so cool about Andrei Talalaev that Baltika is showing current results under his leadership?

— I don't even know how to say it... He approaches the training process very carefully. We are making progress through this. We carry out all its settings both in training and during games.

— Along with Lokomotiv, you are the last team of the current championship that has not lost in this tournament. Is it important for you to be in the table above a club that once didn't give you much chance at the base?

— In any case, it was nice to play against the guys in the summer with the team I spent a lot of time with. But I don't really remember that I left Lokomotiv. This is football life — players come and go everywhere. So I can't say that the confrontation with Loko is of any fundamental importance to me. It's nice to see how they play and go out on the field against the guys I crossed paths with there. I have no other emotions from such matches.

— And who is left at Lokomotiv now from your time, except Dmitry Barinov?

— Artyom Karpukas, Zhenya Morozov. I crossed paths with them back at the academy.

Race of Champions: the winners of the last two years will meet in the RPL

The leading Krasnodar will host Zenit, which is six points behind.

— When you made your debut at the base of Lokomotiv in the RPL under Marko Nikolic at the end of 2020, did you have a chance to gain a foothold in the team later?

— At the end of that season, I myself decided to go on loan to Orenburg, which was then playing in the first league. I wanted more game practice. And I got it after playing three seasons for Orenburg, joining the Premier League and starting to play there. So I don't regret anything. Everything was for the best. And now I've joined Baltika — you can see for yourself that there's no reason to complain about such a fate, since the team is playing like this and achieving such results.

— Are they already starting to talk seriously inside the team about the possibility of competing for medals by staying in the top three at the end of the season?

— Yes, it's probably too early to talk about something yet. We go from game to game and try to score points.