Embattled Zenit St Petersburg coach Luciano Spalletti received full backing from his boss yesterday, a day after his team were dumped out of the Europa League by Swiss side Basel.

The Russian champions failed to overcome last week’s 2-0 defeat at Basel and went out 2-1 on aggregate after spurning a host of chances in the second-leg, last-16 tie on Thursday.

Spalletti has been under pressure to resign following a streak of poor results but received a glowing endorsement from his most loyal fan, Gazprom chief Alexei Miller.

Miller sent the coach a four-line extract from a poem by famous Italian poet Eugenio Montale.

“Luciano, these are some words of support in a tough moment – lines from the poem ‘Afloat’,” Miller said.

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