Barannik believes that the strongest Russian players should be called up for the match with Iran

The Iranian national football team is a serious rival, in such games it is necessary to check the strongest players of the Russian team, Dmitry Barannik, the USSR champion in Zenit, who worked as the sports director of Lokomotiv, told RB Sport.

On Sunday, it was announced that Valery Karpin’s team would play a friendly match against the Iranians on March 23 in Tehran.

“I have not yet heard official confirmation of this information,” says Barannik. – I heard that Iran, Iraq could become our rivals – no more than what the media reported. But if the match takes place, you have to play. “Zenith” met recently in Iran with “Sepahan”, a serious opponent, their team is the same. A match with any opponent is a good training, a test. We must already check our strongest players, and not just others.

– Do you mean that in the last friendly matches with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Valery Karpin tried a very long-range reserve – do you need to call the best players?

– It’s up to the coaching staff who to call. But the more serious the opponent, the more seriously we should treat him. Chasing draws with teams that occupy distant places in the world rankings is probably not entirely correct. We must continue to maintain the image of Russian football.

At the end of February 2022, FIFA and UEFA suspended Russian teams and clubs from participating in international tournaments due to the situation in Ukraine. After these decisions, Valery Karpin’s team played three guest friendly matches in the autumn: with the national teams of Kyrgyzstan (2:1), Tajikistan (0:0) and Uzbekistan (0:0).