The Russian National Team He played his first game at home, since the beginning of the military invasion of Ukraineby defeating 2-0 to Iraq, friendly held this Sunday at the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg.
The team led by valeri karpin He had not played on Russian territory since he crushed in November 2021 to Cyprus (6-0) in the qualifying phase of the Qatar World Cup 2022, that finally he did not dispute when he was excluded by the FIFA.
The Russians, who received their rival on Sunday in the spectacular Gazprom Arena in Saint Petersburg, They were unable to subdue the modest Iraqi selection in the first part, in which the Arabs were even better.
The two goals came after the break. First, Anton Miranchuk took advantage of a rebound from the rival goalkeeper at minute 50 and, shortly after, Sergey Pinyaev he scored the second in a personal move at 58 ‘. in added time Daler Kizyayev He was expelled at 90 + 3 ‘.
The starting eleven for the locals barely featured renowned footballers, with the exception of Obliakov from CSKA or Sobolev of Spartak Moscow.
Karpin I had already anticipated that would introduce changes in relation to the team that drew this week in Iran (1-1), where he could no longer count on his main stars, Golovin (Monaco) and Alexei Miranchuk (Torino), nor with its captain Dzhikiya.
Given the bad results, Karpin was willing to resign if the Russian Football Union so decidesalthough he argued that the The main reason for the poor performance of their players is mainly psychological.
Faced with international ostracism and the lack of rivals to play withthe Russians played a friendly match in September 2022 in Kyrgyzstan (1-2) and in November they drew goalless in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
For all this, the Football Union of Russia (UFR) arises leave UEFA and play in Asiaa proposal that has provoked a heated national debate.
The UFR fears that the exclusion of its selection will prevent it from also participating, in addition to the Eurocup Germany 2024, in the qualifying phase for the 2026 World Cup, which will be played in Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Karpin, who recently renewed his contract as selector until 2024supported the idea that the Brazilians of Zenit, Malcolm and Claudinhowho recently received the Russian passport, can play for the Russian national team.
(With information from EFE)