“Fans expect a bright game from Valery Karpin’s team” – Kommersant FM

The Russian national team is preparing for a new friendly match. On the evening of September 12, Valery Karpin’s team will play with the Qatar team, the meeting will take place in the city of Al-Wakrah in a stadium built specifically for the World Cup in 2022. The recent matches of the Russian national team can hardly be called outstanding. Will she be able to surprise this time? Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov looked into it.

At this training camp, Valery Karpin formed two teams at once: one from the nearest reserve, with players under 23 years of age; and the main one, where the best football players of the moment have already gathered.

Even Alexander Golovin from Monaco arrived. It started, as expected, with the youth, who played two away matches against the Egyptian Olympic team, but were unable to please the fans with victories.

The first game is over draw (1:1), and the second, in which the team was led by Karpin’s assistant Viktor Onopko, – defeat (1:2).

However, initially nothing was expected from these meetings. Still, playing football at temperatures of almost +40 degrees is difficult for everyone.

The second game on the evening of September 11 was not shown by any Russian TV channel. As a result, the broadcast took place on one of the major online cinemas, where commentators worked in the style of a humorous show.

But in Qatar, of course, everything is more serious. It’s not just that Channel One will show the meeting, because the audience will be huge. This time, however, as always, fans expect a bright game from Valery Karpin’s team.

Yes, it’s a friendly meeting, but the coach will assure everyone that the players’ motivation is fine: “I don’t see any problems with it yet.”

True, this is not the first time Karpin answers the question about motivation. In turn, Russian fans expect bright emotions from the game with the Qatar team, football expert Igor Korneev is sure:

“National team matches are an emotional boost for the fans. They still expect victories, and, of course, when the team plays sluggishly, it is a huge disappointment.

I want a bright confrontation, a risk, even if she doesn’t score, she creates a lot of chances. This is what we want to see.”

But we remember what the football “classic” said about our expectations. And if we add to this Karpin’s reasoning that no one is going to defeat Qatar at any cost, then it is better not to expect anything extraordinary from our team.

At the same time, judging by the bookmakers’ odds, Russia is the undisputed favorite in this match, and in theory, it should beat Qatar.

But even if this happens, there will be few goals scored, expert of the Bookmaker Rating portal Andrey Bodrov is sure:

“The players already in the locker room understand that this match, to put it bluntly, is not real. I think it will be boring. In addition, weather conditions also work against spectacular, productive attacking football.”

If these predictions come true, then the questions about why we need such national team matches will sound even louder. Although, who knows, what if instead of the cotton wool that our reserve and Egypt so stubbornly rolled, the foundation will suddenly give out the game of our dreams? As people say, once a year the stick shoots.

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