The Russian team will return to the field – Sport – Kommersant

The Russian Football Union (RFU) has announced that the national team will play a series of test matches in September and November. The first of them will take place on September 24 in Bishkek, where the Russians will play with the national team of Kyrgyzstan. An agreement was also reached on sparring with Iran in November. In addition, the RFU is working on the option of a third friendly meeting.

In conditions suspension Russian national team from official competitions from the International Football Federation (FIFA) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) RFU still managed to find her sparring partners. The first match after a long downtime (and the national team has not played since November 14, 2021, when it lost to the Croats in the qualifying tournament of the Qatari World Cup) will take place in the near future. On September 24 in Bishkek, the Russians will meet with the national team of Kyrgyzstan. It only ranks 95th in the FIFA rankings.

But already in November, the Russian team will face off against a much more serious opponent – the Iranian team, one of the leaders in the Asian region and a participant in the World Cup in Qatar.

This match will also take place on the road, but its date and place will be announced later. Most likely, after Iran, the Russians will play the third game. RFS has already stated that he is organizing it. According to information “Sport-Express”, negotiations are underway with the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and this, by the way, is also a very worthy opponent. In any case, even friendly matches will not interfere with the Russian team now: at the previous training camp at the end of March, the national team had to arrange a two-way match with the youth team.

The coaching staff, headed by Valery Karpin, has identified an expanded circle of candidates for participation in the upcoming matches, which consists of 35 players.

In this list, first of all, attention is drawn to a large number of newcomers: goalkeepers Ivan Lomaev and Mikhail Kerzhakov, although he is already 35 years old, defenders Sergei Borodin, Yuri Zhuravlev, Stanislav Magkeev, Alexander Silyanov, Artem Makarchuk and Daniil Khlusevich, midfielders Roman Yezhov, Daniil Utkin, Nikita Krivtsov, Artem Karpukas and Alexander Kovalenko, forwards Vyacheslav Grulev and Maxim Glushenkov. There are also ten Premier League clubs represented in the national team. At the same time, Karpin did not call legionnaires. Moreover, the same Alexey Miranchuk from Torino is injured, and Alexander Golovin has a very busy schedule at Monaco.

It is clear that Karpin is going to take advantage of the current situation in order to see the closest reserve in action, those players around whom he may have to build a team with an eye to the qualifying tournament of the European Championship in 2024, if sanctions are lifted by that time. It is assumed that 23 field players, not counting goalkeepers, will be included in the final squad for the match with Kyrgyzstan. And for the meeting with Iran, personnel adjustments relevant for that period will most likely be made. According to Valery Karpin, the fact that the national team will play at all in the current conditions is already a success.

“Everyone understands what the situation is now,” said the head coach of the Russian national team. “That is, that is. Now there is no choice. It is important to show that we are alive.”

Alexander Ilyin