The Russian team beat a strong Cameroonian team with a score of 1:0

The Russian team won a friendly match with Cameroon. In a confrontation with one of the strongest teams on the African continent, a participant in many world championships, including the last one, which took place in 2022, everything was decided by a single goal scored by Fedor Chalov.

For the Russian national team, which is not only deprived of the opportunity to participate in official tournaments, but is also experiencing great difficulties in finding strong sparring partners, the friendly match with Cameroon was quite high-status and, perhaps, even the main event since its suspension. Some of the recognized leaders of African football, the “Indomitable Lions”, came to Moscow, and the level of their qualifications was not diminished even by the absence of two of the most star players – midfielder Andre Zambo-Anguissa from Napoli and striker Eric Choupo-Moting from Bayern.

In addition, another very famous character in the opponent’s ranks remained in reserve – Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana. As for the Russians, Monaco midfielder Alexander Golovin was unable to take the field due to injury. And another foreign player, Alexei Miranchuk, who plays little for Atalanta, did not make the start by decision of the coaching staff.

In general, the coach of the Russian team, Valery Karpin, once again surprised with the choice of the squad. For example, the attacking trio now, together with Fedor Chalov, who was put forward at the forefront, consisted of Sergei Pinyaev and Ivan Oblyakov. Moreover, the inside players immediately got very actively involved in the game, and Oblyakov even hit the post from outside the penalty area after moving to the center.

However, quite soon the Cameroonians discovered weaknesses in Karpin’s new defensive line.

First, Vincent Abubakar took advantage of the positional errors of central defenders Maxim Osipenko and Alexander Soldatenkov. In the first case, the Besiktas forward’s shot hit goalkeeper Matvey Safonov, and in the second, defensive midfielder Danil Glebov managed to clear his teammates. Then it became quite alarming for the area of ​​​​responsibility of left back Alexander Silyanov, where he confronted Brentford striker Brian Mbemo. In one of the episodes, he completely ran away one on one with Safonov, but somehow mismanaged an excellent chance, and the Krasnodar goalkeeper easily averted a serious threat.

At some point, the guests completely seized the initiative, and the Russian team’s counterplay completely went wrong. However, it was she who took the end of the first half. Daler Kuzyaev could have opened the scoring when he finished off Sergei Volkov’s cross. Onana’s replacement, Fabrice Ondoa, was simply lucky that the ball almost hit him. And then the Cameroonian goalkeeper cleverly parried Chalov’s header after Pinyaev’s cross, who cunningly played the corner with Oblyakov. But the CSKA striker was persistent and he himself finished off the ball, which bounced off Ondoa. At the same time, defender Nuhu Tolo almost scalped him with his boot raised high.

Despite the goal, during the break Chalov was replaced by Alexander Sobolev. And the Spartak player also scored very quickly, albeit from a clear offside position. And in the opening of the second half, Pinyaev almost scored a beautiful goal off the crossbar when Volkov’s cross from the right flank reached him. But the ball ricocheted off the bar along an intricate trajectory into the baseline, hit the post, and even Dmitry Barinov failed to adjust to it in order to still send it into the net.

The Cameroonians also had a clear scoring chance when Mbemo won the distance race against Silyanov, again found himself eye to eye with Safonov and again found nothing better than to hit the goalkeeper. But in general, the Russian defense already acted much more confidently and harmoniously than in the first half. All approaches to the goal were blocked, and danger arose only after Safonov periodically played too riskily with his feet.

It was felt that a winning result was fundamentally important for the Russian team in this match.

And substitutions were made not on the principle of “let everyone play,” but out of the need to maintain or even increase the score. The twin brothers Alexey and Anton Miranchuk, who, curiously, appeared on the field at the same time, worked out their segment quite well. The debutant of the national team, Evgeniy Kharin, did not spoil the mass, and Maxim Mukhin even hit the goal. It’s a pity that the army man was a bit offside.

But the team withstood the pace and power struggle that the athletic Cameroonians tried to impose on it until the end. In the final part of the match, they had practically no options to avoid defeat. As a result, the Russians won probably their most significant victory in recent times – 1:0.

Alexander Ilyin