The latest matches of the Russian national team have proven that interest in the national team has not gone away even in conditions of exclusion from international tournaments. Home matches with Cameroon and Serbia attracted a large number of fans and were generally enjoyable. But there could have been another great match against Paraguay, postponed due to the terrorist attack. So Valery Karpin’s team remained on trend. Is it any wonder that in Belarus, too, Russian football players were highly anticipated and all the tickets in Minsk were sold out. All that remained was to prove on the field that everything was not in vain.

Experimentation in defense and power in attack

Unfortunately, it was known in advance that two foreign players would not help the Russian national team in this match – Alexander Golovin from Monaco and Arsen Zakharyan from Real Sociedad. The first is recovering from an injury, and the second caught a cold a couple of days before the game. But our other two “foreigners” made it into the starting lineup. Alexey Miranchuk and Daler Kuzyaev took their usual places on the field. This time Karpin also included his brother Alexei Anton in the starting lineup. Ivan Oblyakov was nearby in midfield, and Konstantin Tyukavin played the role of central striker. Danil Glebov was called upon to close the support zone.

If in these two lines the selection of players looked generally familiar and expected, then in defense Karpin continues to experiment for various reasons. Igor Diveev and Evgeny Morozov played in the center of defense, and Ilya Vakhania and Yuri Gorshkov covered the edges. There are suspicions that not all of these names were familiar to a wide range of spectators before the starting whistle.

As for the Belarusian national team, this is quite a good team, despite the modest 96th place in the FIFA rankings. In addition, under the leadership of the Spaniard Carlos Alos, some progress is being observed. And, of course, we should not forget that, unlike us, Belarusians participate in international qualifying tournaments and are not isolated from world football. Therefore, it would be naive to expect an easy victory. By the way, Russia and Belarus last met in 2015, our team won with a score of 4:2, and the very young Golovin and Alexey Miranchuk scored a goal each.

Valery Karpin / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexander Vilf

Great time and beauty from Tyukavin

The Russian team had a great start to the first half. Karpin’s team immediately took the ball and were in complete control of everything that happened on the field. In the fourth minute, Alexei Miranchuk brought Oblyakov almost one on one with the Belarusian goalkeeper Pavel Pavlyuchenko, but Ivan hesitated and missed the chance. Next, Tyukavin broke through on the right flank and crossed to Oblyakov, but the hosts’ defense coped.

It is completely logical that in the eighth minute the Russians opened the scoring. And again, one of the main characters was the CSKA midfielder. Oblyakov responded to a great throw into the penalty area from Alexei Miranchuk and headed the ball into the net. In this episode, the Belarusian goalkeeper was clearly late in coming out and hit Ivan in the head with his fist. Fortunately, serious injury was avoided.

The hosts, of course, wanted to somehow please the huge crowd of spectators who came to the stadium in Minsk that evening. And, I must admit, they really began to succeed. First, Safonov helped, who laid a dangerous feint right at his goal and almost caused panic. Then Matvey corrected himself for his tricks and truly saved the Russian team. Zakhar Volkov had a great shot at the goal of the future PSG star, but our guy pulled the ball out of the corner with a smart jump.

The bosses from Paris will definitely love this! But for Karpin, such actions in defense are unlikely. Valery Georgievich strongly advised the team to get back into the game. Who would have thought that he would be heard so quickly. In the 20th minute, Russian football players performed a fantastically beautiful combination. The main roles are still the same Alexey Miranchuk and Oblyakov. The latter passed the ball to Tyukavin, and the Dynamo forward deftly threw the ball over Pavlyuchenko – 2:0. The most powerful segment performed by the Russian national team, and for Konstantin it was the first goal for the national team.

After such a rapid start, it was logical to assume that things would calm down a little. That’s how it happened, after all, only a few teams in the world can play at such a pace. The Russians needed a pause, which in theory the opponent could take advantage of. Dmitry Antilevsky had a great chance, but shot just wide of the goal. True, it turned out that there was an offside position. Otherwise, the owners did not create anything extremely dangerous. And in general it was clear that the class of Karpin’s team was significantly higher. For most of the first half, our guys got a kick out of what was happening.

Konstantin Tyukavin / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexander Vilf

This team would make some noise at the Euro

During the break, the head coach of the Russian national team decided to change the goalkeeper – Alexander Maksimenko appeared instead of Safonov. Matvey can safely set off to solve problems that have suddenly arisen and prepare to move to Paris. The Belarusians also made one change – Maxim Kireev replaced Antilevsky. The picture of what was happening at the beginning of the second half did not change at all. The combination of Oblyakov and Alexey Miranchuk continued to work brilliantly. In the 54th minute, they tried to repeat the same trick as when they scored the first goal, but this time Ivan’s header turned out a little worse.

The other Miranchuk also looked solid. Anton dribbled, earned fouls, distributed passes, took free throws. It was very pleasant to watch this. The idyll was almost broken by Maksimenko, who came on as a substitute. The goalkeeper of the Russian national team, apparently, had seen enough of Safonov’s actions in the first half. Alexander passed a bad pass to Diveev, which Kireev easily intercepted and jumped out one on one with the Spartak goalkeeper. And here Maksimenko was wonderful, correcting his own mistake.

In the 62nd minute, Karpin removed Tyukavin and Oblyakov, the authors of both goals, from the field. They were replaced by Fedor Chalov and Ivan Sergeev. We all know the CSKA forward as an excellent football player, but few could imagine that less than 10 minutes would be enough for him to score a double after entering the field. Chalov first played a great finishing move, and then received a pass from Alexei Miranchuk, escaped two opponents and clearly placed the ball into the far goal – 4:0.

The Russian team continued to attack and enjoy the game. With all due respect, the Belarusian team had virtually no chances. Karpin’s team finished the season with class and made us think that at the upcoming European Championship they could light things up and go very far in the tournament bracket. And this is not an exaggeration at all. Serbia cannot be called a weak team, but Russia defeated the “brothers” with the same score 4:0. But the main thing is not the results themselves, but the kind of football our guys show.