“The Russian team looked great” – Kommersant FM

The Russian national football team beat the Serbian team 4:0 in a friendly match. The match took place at the Moscow VTB Arena. All tickets for the game were sold, more than 23 thousand fans gathered in the stands. Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov followed the development of events.

Football fans were looking forward to the meeting with the Serbs; after all, the Russian national team had never had opponents of this level after the disqualification. And it was interesting to see what the players were capable of in confrontation with real stars. Even the head coach of the Russian national team, Valery Krapin, spoke about this before the starting whistle: “Just at the level of these players, we’ll see what we can do with pressing, getting out of defense and in a positional attack. How it will turn out is a mystery.”

But despite these expectations, it still felt like the match was a friendly one. The players communicated easily with journalists even in the locker room. But Russian football in the first minutes could be called cautious. The episode after which the Serbian player from CSKA Milan Gaich received a red card changed everything: he stopped Daniil Khlusevich, who went one on one with the goalkeeper. Moreover, a penalty was awarded against the guests.

We can say that the decision of the Turkish referee team broke the game for the Serbs and determined the further development of events in the match. Even commentators Roman Trushechkin and Alexander Aksenov did not believe that Gaich would be kicked off the field until recently. The 11-meter shot was converted by Anton Miranchuk, and Russia took the lead 1:0, after which the advantage of Karpin’s team became noticeable. Therefore, Maxim Osipenko’s goal in the 32nd minute was a logical development of events. Well, when substitute Alexei Miranchuk scored after the break, everything became clear.

In the last minutes of the match, Arsen Zakharyan and Ivan Sergeev scored against the Serbs. Unfortunately, the first goal was canceled due to offside, but 4:0 was the result that no one expected in a game with such a formidable opponent. I’m sure some people still had a bad feeling, because many wanted to watch this meeting in the “11 vs. 11” format, even the head coach of our team: “I’ll be honest, without coquetry: I would like there to be no sending off. I wanted to see football in equal numbers, how we would look against 11 Serbs. Maybe they would even lose, which could have happened. But, naturally, there would be much more information.”

But, on the other hand, we can’t blame the Russian team, which looked great and even won with a big score. So we rejoice at the success of the team, four goals scored, and look forward to the second game with Paraguay, which will also be held at the VTB Arena on March 25. I hope no one is sent off in this match, especially at the very beginning.

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