The coaching staff of the Russian national team, headed by Valery Karpin, has named the final squad for the final matches of the 2022 World Cup qualifying tournament. It includes 29 players who will play on November 11 in St. Petersburg against Cyprus and on November 14 in Split with Croatia. MK tells why there are questions to the list of players.
Very soon we will find out whether our team will make it to the finals of the World Cup from the first place in the group or if Karpin’s team will have to play additional matches. For the first place, you need to beat the Cypriots and at least draw to play with the Croats. Or vice versa.
To solve this problem, the coaching staff of the national team chose 29 players who, in his opinion, are capable of achieving the desired results. The composition of the national team raises questions, which Karpin tried to answer at a press conference at the RFU.
First, the goalkeepers. Of course, Nikita Khaikin played brightly in the Norwegian Buda-Glimt against Roma, and in the youth and youth national teams of Russia he played as many as five matches, but is this enough now to be called up to the main team of the country? Although, judging by the rest of the personalities, we don’t have a lot of goalkeepers at all. The head coach of Rostov, Vitaly Kafanov, is now responsible for the goalkeepers in the national team, who said that there are four goalkeepers left in the final list, since Soslan Dzhanaev will not be able to take part in the preparatory camp due to injury. The final three goalkeepers will be announced before the match against Cyprus.
There are no less questions in the attack. It’s good that Smolov’s coronavirus was not confirmed. Dziuba, taking into account everything that happened between him and Karpin, was not expected to be included in the lineup. True, the rationale for this looked a little strange. “Last time we hoped that he would help us. He said he was not ready. Therefore, we did not consider it now. Refusal is not the main reason why it is not considered. Getting in shape – it’s like this: in Zenit in the last two matches, he also came out as a substitute. This is not enough for me, ”the head coach said about the best scorer in the history of the Russian championships. Hamid Agalarov, who scored his eleventh goal this season in the last round, is not on the list either. But Zabolotny and Sergeev remained. The Krylia forward, of course, is great, he even played in the Russian student team at the 2017 Universiade in Tokyo, but will he have enough strength together with Zabolotny and Smolov to solve the main task of our team – a trip to Qatar next winter?
As for the Spartak player Roman Zobnin, he, again, according to Karpin, was left because “they called those who have experience of playing for the national team under pressure.” How Spartak copes with pressure, we have seen well in St. Petersburg and Rostov. Apparently, in the national team, the players should do better.
However, Karpin is as always optimistic and confident. “The choice was made in favor of experienced players, because now the most important matches are coming. Only old men go into battle – everyone except Sergeev played at this level, so the choice was made in their favor. We still have games, there may be changes in the line-up, ”Valery Georgievich answered numerous questions from journalists about the line-up of the team. He is also lucky, as shown by previous matches. And this is what we all like.
THE FINAL SQUARE OF THE TEAM RUSSIA FOR THE MATCHES WITH CYPRUS AND CROATIA
Goalkeepers: Marinato Guilherme (Lokomotiv, Moscow), Matvey Safonov (Krasnodar), Nikita Khaikin (Bodø-Glimt, Norway), Ilya Lantratov (Khimki).
Defenders: Igor Diveev (CSKA, Moscow), Georgy Dzhikia (Spartak, Moscow), Maxim Osipenko (Rostov, Rostov-on-Don), Vyacheslav Karavaev, Alexey Sutormin, Dmitry Chistyakov (all – Zenit, St. Petersburg ), Ilya Samoshnikov (Rubin, Kazan), Sergey Terekhov (Sochi), Fedor Kudryashov (Antalyaspor, Turkey).
Midfielders: Dmitry Barinov, Rifat Zhemaletdinov (both – Lokomotiv, Moscow), Ilzat Akhmetov (CSKA, Moscow), Alexander Golovin (Monaco, France), Alexander Erokhin, Andrey Mostovoy (both – Zenit, St. Petersburg), Alexey Miranchuk (Atalanta, Italy), Arsen Zakharyan, Daniil Fomin (both – Dynamo Moscow), Alexey Ionov (Krasnodar), Roman Zobnin, Zelimkhan Bakaev (both – Spartak Moscow), Danil Glebov (“Rostov”, Rostov-on-Don).
Forwards: Fedor Smolov (Lokomotiv, Moscow), Anton Zabolotny (CSKA, Moscow), Ivan Sergeev (Wings of the Soviets, Samara).
NOVEMBER TEAM SCHEDULE
November 11 (Thursday). 20.00 (Moscow time)
World Cup 2022 qualifying match. Russia – Cyprus. Stadium “Saint Petersburg”.
November 14 (Sunday). 15.00 (Moscow time)
World Cup 2022 qualifying match. Croatia – Russia. Polyud stadium.
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