The defender and captain of Zenit, Douglas Santos, shared his thoughts on the psychological pressure leading up to the 9th round match in the Mir RPL against Krasnodar, which is scheduled for September 21.

**— In your opinion, who feels more pressure: the reigning champion or the challenger who has been a champion multiple times?**
**— I believe the team currently defending the title feels the most pressure. However, given that we’ve been champions six times in a row and only lost the title last season by a single point, we certainly feel pressure as well. That said, I think this pressure ultimately benefits us. We all want to reclaim our gold medals; we all want to win again. This pressure has a positive effect; it helps us to stay more focused and concentrated. Before every training session and match, we remind ourselves that we must recover what we’ve lost. I want to emphasize that both teams face pressure, but in our case, it plays a constructive role,** quoted Santos on Zenit’s official website.