More than a week has passed since the start of Euro 2020 (2021), which means that some conclusions can already be drawn. During this time, the Russian national team managed to play two matches: with Belgium and with Finland. In the fight with the first rival country, we lost 3: 0. The second match was more successful, beating Finland with a score of 1: 0. Now I wanted to talk in more detail about each of the matches.
Russia & Belgium
On June 12, 2021, on the Day of Russia, our team played a match with Belgium. The outcome of the match was quite predictable, but still very upset the fans. The head coach of the national team, Stanislav Cherchesov, slightly changed the composition of the national team, but these measures before the start of the match seemed quite logical.
Mario Fernandez appeared on the right flank of the defense, and Andrei Semenov replaced the injured Fedor Kudryashov in the center of defense. In the middle lane, there was one change: Daler Kuzyaev came out instead of Alexei Ionov. In addition, Yuri Zhirkov appeared on the field.
Before the start of the match, the opinions of the fans were rather skeptical. So Vladimir Pozner in an interview with Sport24 magazine said:
“Of course, I’ll see how Russia loses to Belgium. Russia’s chances are minimal. I cannot say that they will definitely not come out, but the fact that they will not become European champions – I am 99.99 percent sure of that, ”the journalist said.
Unfortunately, already at the tenth minute, the disappointing forecast began to come true. However, the missed ball did not break the team at all, and the set gave an impetus to the fight to rush into the attack. One of the innings from the flank became an insoluble problem for the Russians. Anton Shunin could not cope with a fairly simple outline, hitting the ball in front of him. Tom Meunier was on the goalkeeper’s line, he could only roll the ball into an empty corner. The result is 2: 0. In the 88th minute, Lukaku was taken one-on-one with Shunin with a simple pass and the striker put an end to the match with a blow to the near corner. Thus the game ended.
Russia & Finland
Exactly four days later, on June 16, 2021, the next match took place. Throughout the game, the opponent struck 10 shots, 8 of which from the penalty area, created a lot of chances to score. This gave the fans a reason to assume that the victory of our national team turned out to be, as it were, modest and uncertain. Nevertheless, for the team, this is still a step forward, albeit a small one.
Before the start of the match, the line-up of the team was changed again. Safonov became the goalkeeper instead of Shunin. In addition, the team returned to a five-player formation on the defensive. Barinov moved from the support zone to the position of the right central defender, and Semyonov was replaced by Diveeva. After Zhirkov’s injury, Kuzyaev came out as a left-back, not Karavaev.
The one and only goal was scored by the midfielder of the Russian national team, Alexei Miranchuk. In time added to the first half, Artyom Dziuba made a neat discount on Miranchuk, who sent the ball to the far top corner with a kick from the penalty area with his left.
In conclusion, I would like to note that the Russian national team still has a chance to win, albeit not very big. So let’s support our athletes and wish them strength and good luck, which they will definitely come in handy!
