Manager Dan Petrescu believes Dynamo Moscow, who have risen from the foot of the table to ninth in the Russian Premier League, are contenders for a Europa League place next season.
"Dynamo were placed last when I took over the club in August. Now we are ninth and it depends only on our joint work in which place Dynamo will finish in May," the Romanian said on Friday.
The former Chelsea player added: "We performed a splendid series before the break clinching seven wins in our last eight matches."
"This fact gave us the right to say that we did a good job last year," the 45-year-old told Russian daily Sport Express.
"However, we should never rest on our laurels if we want to take a high place at the end."
Dynamo experienced a disastrous start to the season last July, losing five consecutive matches, but now boast 30 points from 19 matches, 13 points behind leaders CSKA Moscow.
"Our team is like a group of people in a boat," Petrescu said.
"We can move fast in case we all want it and are doing our best for it but if not it's really easy to sink.
Petrescu said he was relishing his time at Dynamo.
"I always wanted to coach a metropolitan club with rich historic traditions," he said.
"Dynamo is exactly such a club, where the great 'keeper Lev Yashin has played all of his career.
"I'd like to take over Chelsea some day as I still have very warm relations with the club and its supporters. But I'm still waiting for a call from them...."
Source: AFP
