Everyone turned on in Turkey

The Russian national team in the starting match of the League of Nations played with such an appetite, as if it had not been saturated with the World Cup

The point is not even that they won - in the end, and they could also give in. The Turks in any, even a strongly updated composition - not a gift, but Mircea Lucescu is not such a coach to give up after a slurred first half. The second 45 + 5 minutes his team spent violently and sensibly, crushed and strangled, forced the guests to fight back and make mistakes. But this national team of Russia, even without half the main composition of the past summer, even against the backdrop of stuffiness and fatigue, even having lost the initiative, fought back and saved thoroughly, with a sense of dignity.

Where did everything come from? Yes, everything is from there, from the home championship of the world. Its main result was not the result recognized as outstanding precisely in the local coordinate system, but by gaining a team of living feelings of the game-along with rid of eternal fear of doing something wrong. Not everything turned out, but this was redeemed by the desire to prove that we can also act in a good way impudently and relaxed.

To prevent confidence in self -confidence, to maintain the fighting spirit and motivation was, as I believe, almost the main thing standing in front of Stanislav Cherchesov’s task, both during the training collection, and in the first after the break of the match. It seems that the players went to meet the hunt. Maybe they did not have to persuade them. After the match, Artem Dziuba will say that it was not for nothing that they then mined the location of the country in order to easily part with it.

The charisma of Dziuba used to be clearly manifested only behind the field and mainly verbally. But literally in a month, Artem grew up from the striker of limited opportunities in the true leader, whose “woodenness” no one recalls. In the current Dziuba, perhaps, it is best to see how the national team was transformed. The new captain (in the absence of Igor Akinfeev) of the team can play better or worse, but cannot play freshly. From him and in the Trabzone in the Shenol Gunes arena, such a powerful impulse came that could not be picked up.

It was necessary to take the game into their own hands from the first minutes, and the guests took it. It was beautiful and pleased the eye. Denis Cheryshev, after the Jiki Jiki, which was begun by George with a widespread combination and a series of discounts (let Scheaner Ozbayrakla, who had a decisive defender, slammed with the left with his left - without chances for the goalkeeper. At least three or four shin-like chance also did not arise from scratch, not after the standards and obvious Turkish errors, but as a result of quite deliberate attacking community actions-and this is in the absence of such injured designers of the game as Alexander Golovin and Alan Dzagoev.

The Turkish national team was almost not visible. The fans who dotted the field with colorful paper tinsel showed themselves much more obvious. The response goal of the hosts under the curtain of the half turned out to be illogical - after serving from the freezer Jikia, he threw the ball right onto the leg of Aziz, who was left to shoot the gates of Lunev. The Turks got out of pressure, the stadium buzzed, and the character of the game began to change. For the most changes, the line of protection, in the center of which went out for the long time for the national team George Dzhikia and Roman Neushtedter, was especially alarming.

The Turkish national team, by the way, during the qualifying tournament took four points from the future silver medalist of the 2018 World Cup of the Croatian national team. She did not cool down on the field in Trabzon. Mircea Lucescu knows who is worth what in Russian football - he worked with Zenit recently, and in the current composition of representatives of the St. Petersburg club as much as seven. But even before the Turks got out, Dziuba took the longitudinal pass from Gazinsky on the verge of offsay, he went out to the gate and did not make it out of the whole dope, as it happened before, but luggled the ball past the goalkeeper. Artem will check the strength of the strength when the onslaught of the hosts reaches the peak, Andrei Lunev will make several salvations, the last minutes will be quite validal, but it will end safely.

In a variety of poster of the first round of the League of Nations, there were signs much cooler - for example, Germany - a fraud, a sign meeting of the main losers and triumphs of the recent World Cup. But the knitting in Trabzon has become perhaps the most striking evidence in favor of the new tournament. “Knowns” so if they are played, it is extremely rare. (Actually, one of the tasks of the League of Nations, in addition to the title and additional selection of four teams on Euro 2022, was to translate dull friendly meetings into a more spectacular competitive direction.)

By the way, on Monday in Rostov there will be a control match. With the Czech team, which on the eve of the League of Nations lost to Ukraine at home. Stanislav Cherchesov, most likely, will decide to check someone from the nearest reserve-in vain, or something, they called the recruits? But without Artyom Dziuba, the head coach in any case will not do. And we will see if the combat team spirit was fixed, the presence of which was so felt in the Black Sea Trabzone.