International matches are important for the Russian national football team, especially with such an interesting team as Iran, according to the former striker of Spartak and Zenit Maxim Demenko.

Earlier, the Tasnim agency, citing a statement by the President of the Iranian Football Federation (FFIRI), Mehdi Taj, announced a meeting between the national teams of Russia and Iran in Tehran on March 22 or 23. According to Match TV, the Russian Football Union (RFU) is waiting for all the necessary documents for this meeting.

– Such matches are now very important for the national team, especially with Iran: the team is good, interesting. The more often the national team plays friendly games, the more opportunities we will have to see the team and its recruitment. Because the previous matches were last year, after that there was the World Cup – how did our team look against this background? Yes, there was no, for example, Sasha Golovin, Alexei Miranchuk, but the backbone was still there. Either the players themselves did not come to the games, or Valery Georgievich Karpin was looking for a squad. Therefore, friendly matches are very important,” Demenko told Gazeta.Ru.

Earlier, the Minister of Sports of Russia Oleg Matytsin held a meeting with the Minister of Youth and Sports of Iran Seyyed Hamid Sajjadi Khazave. At the end of the meeting, the parties signed an action plan for the development of cooperation in the field of physical culture and sports for 2023–2024. It provides for holding joint sports and training events in 20 sports.

On February 17, a friendly match between Zenit and Iran’s Sepahan will take place. The beginning is at 15:00 Moscow time. The match will be broadcast live on the federal channels MATCH TV and MATCH PREMIER, websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.