A friendly match between Iraq and Russia would have the atmosphere of a World Cup final, says former Iraqi coach Zeljko Petrovich.

Earlier, Match TV reported that the Russian Football Union (RFU) offered the Iraqi Football Federation to hold a friendly match of national teams in Sochi. Earlier, Al Sabaah, citing a source, reported that the Iraqi Football Federation offered the RFU to play a friendly match from March 20 to March 28 in Baghdad. Petrovich worked with Iraq from 2021 to 2022.

“Playing against Iraq in Iraq is always difficult,” Petrovich told RB Sport. – The fans drive the team forward, while the players themselves are strong. Iraq is playing at home for the first time in ten years due to sanctions. When I was a coach, we played home matches in Qatar, UAE, where we were supported by 300 fans. In fact, we had no support. Plus, there were coronavirus times. We came to the meeting at the hotel and found out that eight people from the staff came down with the disease. They flew to Lebanon a few days later and four more were added with a crown. All the time they were in Korea, they were quarantined, and only in the Emirates or Qatar everything was fine, except for the empty stadium. Now Iraq is playing at home, and I have prepared the team for this moment so that everything is great for them.

– What do you mean?

– I cleaned up the team, changed the composition almost entirely, pulling up young players. And most of them competed at the recent Gulf Cup of Nations. When I did the purge, I was criticized, but now everyone is happy. Before me, players were invited to the national team mainly from the three leading clubs, but I watched the matches of all teams from the middle, lower part of the standings and found talented guys. I asked the president of the federation if he wants me to clean up the squad and prepare the team for the next 5-7 years. I received a positive response and selected guys aged 19-22. And now we can see that these guys are moving to clubs in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates for good money. So for the Russian team, it could turn out to be an interesting match against a motivated opponent. Plus, the team will be able to change the situation – the stadium is guaranteed to gather 60 thousand spectators. And Russia will definitely not be easy there.

Would you dare to predict the score of such a match?

– The game can develop in any direction. Plus, now no one will say what lineup Russia would play – the strongest or the youngest. I think that if you go to such a game, you need to bring the strongest, because the atmosphere at the stadium will be as if it were the final of the World Cup. No other friendly match will have such a hype. And if the young come out, you can get both 0:3 and 0:4, which will negatively affect the image of the country. But I would recommend Russia to play this game.