Anzhi Makhachkala manager Guus Hiddink has said that he is extremely surprised about the progress the club has made in the Europa league this season.
Anzhi Makhachkala have been one of the biggest spending teams in Europe this season. Despite this, the manager Guus Hiddink has said that he did not expect the team to qualify for the play-offs of the Europa league. However, they have done so in the most impressive fashion despite being in the group containing the likes of Liverpool. The recent 2-0 win over Udinese confirmed the progress into the next round of the Europa league.
This win also meant that Anzhi Makhachkala would be qualifying as the top two teams from this group. Hiddink has expressed his delight at being able to achieve a comfortable victory over the Italian club. He has reserved his glowing praise for the Italian teams by saying that any Italian team is extremely tough to beat, and doing so is extremely prestigious. He has also mentioned that if the pitch quality had been good, then the team would be able to achieve an even better result. Hiddink’s time at extremely good in the second half after a disappointing first half.
“We qualified from the group, and I’m happy. I’m proud of my team and all the players. In the summer, when the qualification started, I couldn’t imagine that we’d find ourselves in the spring playoffs, coming out of such a difficult quartet. Beating any Italian club tactically is very prestigious, and I am pleased that we have succeeded. We were well-organized in the first half, not giving Udinese a single chance to score,” said the manager of the Russian club. Anzhi have spent a lot of money on several high profile players like Samuel Eto’o, who is the best paid player in the world.