Russian hearts were broken Saturday evening as they lost their showdown match to Germany 1-0 in front of a packed Luzhniki Stadium. The result ends Russia hopes of winning Group Four in World Cup qualifying and forces them to win a berth in the World Cup via the hotly contested two-legged play off. From the recent 3-1 victory over Wales, Guus Hiddink welcomed back a fully-fit Yuriy Zhirkov to the line-up and along with the former CSKA Moscow man, he summoned Igor Denisov into the starting eleven. Joachim Low's visiting German side made three tactical changes to his most recent line-up, calling upon Mesut Ozil, Miroslav Klose and Jerome Boateng in his international debut. From the opening whistle it was quite clear the Russia was going to push forward boldly but at as the score-line suggests, each opportunity fell short, whether due to the final touch or the stunning play of German goalkeeper Rene Adler. Not ten minutes into the evening Alexandr Kerzhakov saw two efforts come up short before a clever build-up gave Germany a chance to break the deadlock with Lukas Podolski’s point-blank effort blocked by Sergey Ignashevich. With the affair quickly opening-up, Russia saw a free-kick by Yuriy Zhirkov drift tantalizingly over the bar but the German 'keeper stopped Vladimir Bystrov's effort after he had been played in by Andrey Arshavin. However four minutes past the half-hour the lone goal of the evening was scored as Lukas Podolski played Mesut Ozil through the left channel with the young play-maker laid the ball back to Bayern Munchen's Miroslav Klose who closed out from seven metres. Now down by one Russia had its back to the wall and needing two goals for the win they charged forward. At the break Dmitriy Torbinskiy was summoned into the Russian line-up for Igor Denisov and it was clear, Germany was focused upon sustaining pressure and squeezing the attacking pulse out of the match. Despite those efforts, Russian was finding a way and eight minutes after the re-start Alexandr Kerzhakov had a gifted chance to level but the Dynamo striker was foiled by Rene Adler again. Searching for the right mix, Roman Pavlyuchenko was called into the eleven but still Russia was having problems with the final touch against the efficient German unit. With twenty-one minutes left in regulation Germany was forced to play a man down as Jerome Boateng, who had otherwise played a superb match, was sent off with his second yellow-card. The disadvantage seemed to rally the German's as they fought to hold back Russia's efforts though they were highly fortunate to see a rather obvious penalty call on Arne Friedrich's bringing down of Vladimir Bystrov ignored. With thirteen minutes remaining Guus Hiddink made his final substitution, sending in Pavel Pogrebnyak for Igor Semshov but scoring chances began to dry up and the match concluded 1-0 in Germany's favour. Well…I guess nobody would argue with the opinion that it was quite clear from the very beginning of the game that German national team played REAL football as opposed to our football players. That doesn’t mean that we are the worst, but still most of Russian players have to take themselves in hand and start doing things well. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in that game, but do you believe that everything will be ok then? Well…do you generally believe in Russian team? What is the reason for some of our failures?
Hi, folks! The discussion seems to be gaining speed and interest. Please, go to the FORUM section for the topic SPORT. I have started a new thread RUSSIAN FOOTBALL. Luck, thankx a lot for the topic.
Excuse me, guys for breaking into your conversation. I am not a footbal fan, but still Know a lot about football teams from different counties and their potential. I knew from the very beginning that Russia had no chance playing with Germany. Our milksops against such titans as Klose & Ballack! Ridiculous...Many men hate me for my opinion...perhaps they realize it's true, but football is not our national game, we should admit it and try to spend money on sth worthier. Those rare splashes of "talent" our footballers reveal once a decade are typical of most unfortunate players from Malta, Mongolia or Azerbaijan.
But what is good about Russian football is the fact that it unites the nation no matter if we lose or not. So rephrasing a famous classic I would say - Football is the opium for people. It alleviates the pain
from the very beginning of the game that German national team played REAL
at the very beginning everyone thought that Russia would struggle for a win, because this match was preceded by 6 wins in a row, and more than that we played at home - in Luzhniki Arena. Did you watch the match anyway?? now, after the draw with Azerbaidjan we'll have to play a two-legged play-off. Our rival will be known tomorrow (October, 19).
