Russians exit tourney with heads held high
What you need to know:
- Placed 70th in Fifa rankings, home team Russia was the lowest-ranked team competing in the tournament.
- Four months later, the Russian team has gone some distance in proving him and some home fans wrong.
- Saturday’s loss to Croatia on penalties left many fans proud of their team. It is Russia’s best performance in the World Cup since Soviet era.
They may have lost 4-3 to Croatia on penalties after 2-2 draw in regular and extra time in the quarter-finals at to exit the tournament on Saturday, but for many reasons, Russian players and fans have exited the tournament with their heads held high.
Russia only qualified for the 2018 World Cup by virtue of being the hosts, and with a domestic league whose top teams have struggled to make an impact in European club competitions, Russians themselves gave their team a slim chance of reaching the latter stages of the competition.
With the exception of Villarreal midfielder Denis Cheryshev and Club Brugge goalkeeper Vladimir Gabulov, all members of Russia’s 23-man squad play in their struggling domestic league.
You would have to go a decade back to see when a Russian club last won a European club football title.
Four-time Russian champions Zenit Saint Petersburg was the last Russian club to win Europe’s second-tier club competition, the Uefa Europa League, in 2008, and the team went on to win Uefa Super Cup the same year, while CSKA Moscow also won Uefa Europa League in 2005.
Both Rubin Kazan and Zenit St Petersburg have been regular campaigners in Uefa Champions League, but they have always fizzled out before the tournament reaches the business end.
Placed 70th in Fifa rankings, home team Russia was the lowest-ranked team competing in the tournament.
The team started its campaign by beating Saudi Arabia 5-0 in a Group ‘A’ match that was also the opening match of the tournament on June 14 at a packed Luzhniki Stadium.
From then on, Russian players, buoyed by strong home support and knowing that President Vladimir Putin was closely following their performance through phone calls to coach Stanislav Cherchesov, started believing in themselves.
The hosts followed up that result against Saudi Arabia with a 3-1 win over Mohammed Salah-led Egypt on June 19 at St Petersburg, and coach Cherchesov’s team qualified for the round of 16 as Group ‘A’ runners up behind Uruguay despite losing their final group match 3-0 to the South Americans in a match where Villarreal midfielder Denis Cheryshev scored an own goal.
With 98 per cent of the tickets reserved for group matches sold, the feeling among Russian fans going into the last 16 was that they had unfairly judged the team, and Allexey Sorokin, chairman of the 2018 World Cup Local Organising Committee said as much.
“With 98 percent attendance of matches, the turnout has been fantastic and local fans have come out to support their team in great numbers.
“The feeling among fans is that they unfairly judged the Russian team before the tournament started and now they feel sorry for judging the team too early,” Sorokin said as he gave journalists a report on the tournament in Moscow on June 29.
Before home fans, Russia beat Spain 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in their round of 16 match played a week ago at Luzhniki Stadium, goalkeeper and captain Igor Akinfeev becoming the hero of local fans by saving two penalties to take his team to the quarter-finals.
“We have shown the world we can match any strong team. Our team beat 2010 World Cup champions Spain and now we have drawn 1-1 with Croatia and only losing due to bad luck,” a Russian fan called Ismailova told me at Miyakinino Metro Station. “We have proven the doubters wrong.”
In March, Russia’s former coach Leonid Slutsky told Russians to “admit that you are not a footballing nation and move on” after two humbling home defeats to Brazil and France in friendly matches.
“When I say that we are not a footballing nation, I do it so that we can figure out why,” Slutsky, who coached Russia at the Euro 2016, clarified days later in a television programme.
“The fact that we are not the strongest team in the world is obvious to everyone. This is like in Alcoholics Anonymous, when you come in and say: ‘I am so and so and I have a problem’,” the 46-year-old added.
“This is where the recovery and some sort of progress begins.”
Four months later, the Russian team has gone some distance in proving him and some home fans wrong.
Saturday’s loss to Croatia on penalties left many fans proud of their team. It is Russia’s best performance in the World Cup since Soviet era.
