The Russian team has a zero period – Sport – Kommersant
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The Russian national team played a friendly match against Uzbekistan on the road and again tied – 0:0. Three days ago, the Russian footballers finished the control match against Tajikistan with the same score.
In the third match of their Central Asian tour, the Russian team met, perhaps, with the strongest opponent. Uzbekistan, in general, has always been quoted in football higher than the same Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan. So it was in the Soviet period, when the republic was represented at the highest level by the Tashkent Pakhtakor. This situation persists to this day, which is confirmed, in particular, by the international rating of the Uzbek team, which is in 77th position. She has never qualified for the World Championships yet, but she regularly participates in the main regional tournament – the Asian Cup and, as a rule, leaves the group there, and in 2011 she even reached the semi-finals. Actually, recently Uzbekistan proved its leadership by playing, defeating Kazakhstan 2-0 in a friendly, but very principled match.
Seriously treated to sparring with the Uzbek team and Valery Karpin. Even at the pre-match press conference, the coach said that he did not consider her weaker than Slovenia or Slovakia, with whom the Russians competed in the qualifying round for the 2022 World Cup. And he warned that in Tashkent he would put up, in his words, a more basic team than in the meeting with Tajikistan, with which the Russian team played a draw last Thursday – 0:0.
Moreover, Karpin resorted to a scheme with three central defenders, paying increased attention to the real star of the current national team of Uzbekistan – Italian Roma striker Eldor Shomurodov.
Who better than Karpin to know the danger of this football player, because he coached him at Rostov.
Shomurodov really constantly kept Georgy Jikia, Dmitry Barinov and Ruslan Litvinov, who were in charge of the center of defense, in suspense. Despite the density of guardianship, the forward still found free zones and broke into them, so the Russians had to work hard to stop these threats. In addition, Khozhimat Erkinov, who plays for the Moscow Torpedo, pretty much pulled the guests with his jerks.
The Slovenian coach of the Uzbekistan national team, Srechko Katanets, clearly relied on quick counterattacks, and it worked, especially since his wards defended both in number and skill.
In principle, the Russian team faced the same difficulties as in the previous friendly matches with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. And again she had big problems with a positional attack. For the entire first half, she practically failed to create anything at the opponent’s goal, except for a few corners, which, however, the Russians also served not in the best way. So it was not at all clear what the Uzbek goalkeeper Utkir Yusupov was like. But closer to the break, the hosts brought the matter to a blow, squeezing a scoring chance out of touch, when Shomurodov shot Farukh Saifiyev into the penalty area. Guests goalkeeper Anton Shunin managed to cover the near corner.
In the second half, the Russian team felt better, because Shomurodov left the field quite early. After Katanets also replaced Erkinov, his counterattacking model was completely upset. Finally, Karpin’s team also added in intensity, and most importantly, in sharpness. Aleksander Sobolev, who was put forward on the edge, revived. Almost led to a goal by his spectacular volley over himself after a corner. The ball flew near the post, and then Yusupov flashed his reaction when the Spartak striker hit the equipment, receiving a pass in the penalty area from Arsen Zakharyan.
True, it was only a surge of activity among the guests. At the end, Karpin released Nikolai Komlichenko, Anton Miranchuk and Sergey Pinyaev – probably with the task of increasing pressure ahead, but the rearrangements gave rather the opposite result. The hosts pushed the Russians away from their gates and even tried to go on the offensive, and Otabek Shukurov, who plays at the club level for the Turkish Fatih Karagyumryuk, which is headed by the famous Italian football player Andrea Pirlo, even drew a penalty. The referee did not buy into his fall in Shunin’s penalty area, and the match ended in a goalless draw.
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