The Russian national team, despite all the obvious problems, still found a strong opponent for a friendly match. Cameroon’s arrival in Moscow was expected with interest. To some extent, the already forgotten feelings of anticipation for a big match of the national team even reappeared. And I must say that the game did not disappoint, although at times it was extremely alarming.

Sensational lineup and defensive failures

Karpin was a big surprise with his starting lineup. Even taking into account the fact that this is a friendly match in which you can experiment. The Volkov-Osipenko-Soldatenko-Silyanov line of defense is, to put it mildly, unexpected. Barinov, Glebov and Kuzyaev started the game in the center of the field, and the attacking three looked like this – Pinyaev, Chalov, Oblyakov. There are, of course, less sensations in these two lines, but the choice of the coaching staff still made me think.

Cameroon also did not field any combat personnel. Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana remained on the bench, and Bayern striker Eric Choupo-Moting was not included in the lineup due to injury. At the same time, head coach Rigobert Song still put a number of strong players in the base, including, for example, Vincent Abubakar.

Our team started the match quite well. Karpin’s team managed to quickly go on the attack, and in the eighth minute Oblyakov made a great shot from outside the penalty area, but hit the post. It seemed that the Russians would continue to create chances, but instead there were terrible failures in defense. Abubakar twice in three minutes ran almost one on one with Safonov, stopping both scoring chances.

Next, Mbemo took on the role of Abubakar and burst into the Russian team’s penalty area twice in a row. In the second case, the Cameroonian had an ideal opportunity to finally open an account, but Safonov saved ours. Karpin’s brigade did not succeed at all at that time. It’s a miracle that Cameroon didn’t score in the first 30 minutes of the match.

Valery Karpin / Photo: © Denis Bushkovsky / Match TV

There is Chalov’s first goal in the national team

The coach of the Russian national team was indignant on the sideline and, apparently, managed to shout to his players. Closer to the break, ours suddenly turned on, began to actively put pressure on the opponent and created a killer moment. Volkov crossed from the flank, and Kuzyaev got ahead of his opponent and shot from a few meters, but the Cameroon goalkeeper was excellent.

It’s nice that our team didn’t stop there and continued to attack. Krasnodar right-back Volkov was very good. It was his active actions that led to a corner kick, from which the Russian team opened the scoring. Chalov hit the Cameroonian goalkeeper on his second attempt, delighting the almost full stands of the Dynamo stadium. For Fedor, by the way, this is his first goal in the national team. A couple of minutes later, Barinov famously ran towards the opponent’s goal, but just missed the ball. 1:0 – with this score the teams went to rest.

Matvey Safonov / Photo: © Denis Bushkovsky / Match TV

First victory in six months

In the second half, Alexander Sobolev entered the field instead of Chalov, who scored the goal. The Spartak forward managed to score in the 54th minute, but the referee recorded an offside position. But a few minutes before this, Pinyaev had a great moment. And again danger came from the right flank, where Volkov was shining. Sergei flew along the edge and crossed into the center of the penalty area. The ball flew to Pinyaev, who managed to hit the crossbar with one blow, and then the goal post of the Cameroon team.

Despite such excellent chances in attack, it could not be said that the Russian team dominated on the field. The Cameroonians were no worse, they just didn’t score their killer chances. The same Mbemo, after a clearance from his own goalkeeper, surprisingly easily pushed through Silyanov and went one on one with Safonov. But, as in the first half, Matvey saved our team.

After this, both coaches began to make numerous changes, as a result of which the game calmed down. It was only revived by Safonov and Glebov, who played the ball extremely riskily in their own penalty area. Fortunately for us, the Cameroonians failed to take advantage of this. The Russian team achieved a victory, which was the first for Karpin’s team since March, when they beat Iraq at home.

It’s hardly worth making global conclusions about this game. In the current situation it simply doesn’t make sense. But we can be glad that, despite everything, Russia is playing with the World Cup participants, and interest in the national team remains at a high level. The filled stands of the Dynamo stadium are the best confirmation of this.

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