Translated material
Lost our bearings
Russia again forgot about its place in the FIFA rankings
Guus Hiddink cannot win against the Russian national team for the second official match in a row. Moreover, having missed the first goal under the leadership of the Dutch specialist, our team played a draw with Israel - 1:1 and lost two “sure” points in the qualifying round of the European Championship.During the few months that Hiddink led the Russian national team, he constantly hinted that our team does not belong to the elite of European football. At first softly, but each time it gets harder and harder. In any case, on the eve of the match with Israel, Hiddink simply read out the FIFA national team rankings, where Russia ranks fourth among its group rivals, leaving others to draw conclusions. But still, out of old memory, the Israeli national team in Russia was considered a frivolous opponent - just hints will not destroy the stereotypes of those 20-odd thousand spectators who came to the Dynamo stadium, demanding victory, and preferably with a big score. Having forgotten, however, that in two years the Israeli team has not suffered a single defeat in official matches. Including in the 2006 World Cup qualifying games against the French.
However, in the first half of the Moscow meeting it seemed that the Israeli unbeaten streak would end. In any case, already in the 5th minute the Russians easily opened the scoring: Pogrebnyak passed to Arshavin, and he, running one on one with the goalkeeper, calmly sent the ball into the goal. Then Pogrebnyak himself should have scored at least twice. “In the first case, I was a little hasty and shot at the goalkeeper with my left, although I should have calmly hit the corner with my right,” the forward discussed his mistakes in a conversation with reporters after the match. “In the second, it seemed like I did everything right, but I still couldn’t hit the target.”
After the break in our team's game, everything broke down. As soon as the players of the Russian national team were convinced that they had no equal on the field, the game disappeared. There was control over the ball, but things never came to dangerous moments. The Israelis, on the contrary, increased the pace and acted more and more boldly at Akinfeev’s gate, giving him more and more reasons for excitement. In two cases, the guests forgave Hiddink's team for mistakes in defense, in the third they could no longer help but punish and, during a swift counterattack, equalized the score. “There was a foul on the part of the Israeli team,” Russian defender Vasily Berezutsky later justified himself. - He sat down when I was jumping for the ball, and I lost coordination. And he immediately rushed along the flank. So it's my mistake." Tamuz Akinfeev, who rushed along the flank, parried the shot, but Ben-Shoshan was the first to finish – 1:1.
After the match, journalists had to wait a long time for Guus Hiddink. It is unknown what the Dutchman talked about in the locker room with his players. It seems that he asked not to be upset and reminded that the qualifying cycle was just beginning. He said the same thing after he left the press conference. The lights at the Dynamo stadium had already gone out, the police cordon had already been lifted, and Guus Hiddink was still answering questions from his compatriots, first in English, then in Dutch. All this was reminiscent of Boniface's Vacation: Hiddink managed to take a few steps to the car, and he was immediately surrounded by journalists and autograph lovers. Having fought them off, the head coach of the national team won a few more meters, and again a small crowd gathered around him: Guus Hiddink is still interesting to Russia. In any case, there is still a chance of reaching the finals of the European Championship.
At the same time, Hiddink was informed that the England team had drawn with Macedonia - 0:0. This news caused joyful excitement among RFU officials. But the Dutchman took it very calmly: judging by the matches of the Macedonians with the British, Russia will have another rival in the fight for second place in the group. Maybe the Macedonian national team was lucky at Old Trafford (the hosts were unable to capitalize on several dangerous chances, and once Gerrard's shot hit the crossbar), but they deserved this point away. “We got a draw, and we have to admit, it was deserved. The team did not live up to its standards,” England head coach Steve McClaren acknowledged the pattern of the result. - But understand, we had to beat Macedonia, especially on our own field. The players themselves understand everything, I don’t need to say any words after the match. They are already very worried.”
The players of the England national team will be able to get rid of unnecessary worries in the near future: they will have a meeting with the Croatian national team, which secured a decent difference in goals scored and conceded in the match with Andorra.
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Qualifying round for the European Championship. Group "E". Russia - Israel - 1:1 ( Arshavin 5 - Ben-Shoshan 84 ), Croatia - Andorra - 7:0 (Petrich 12; 39, 48, 50, Klasnic 58, Balaban 62, Modric 83) , England -- Macedonia -- 0:0.