"Russia dictated the rules of the game, but the implementation failed again": what did Cherchesov say after the League of Nations match with Hungary

"We were getting ready to win the home game"

The head coach of the Russian national team Stanislav Cherchesov after the end of the League of Nations match with Hungary (0: 0) was clearly disappointed, because his players could not win in the third meeting in a row.

However, the specialist praised them and recalled that in October the team missed a number of leaders for various reasons. 

- We were getting ready to win the home match.

The moments that we created were not realized.

The first 15-20 minutes were in play, so there were no dangerous moments at the opponent's goal.

At the end of the first half, they began to seize the initiative.

You could see good approaches, but the last pass was missing for an effective completion.

In the second half of the meeting, we dictated the rules of the game, but the implementation failed again.

- Do you agree that the national team played two completely different halves?

- To some extent, yes.

In the first, the Hungarians were still fresh, so they put up resistance, got out of the defense well.

In the second half we seized the initiative and physically looked better.

In addition, replacements were made that strengthened the team.

- Today the national team did not press as high as in the first half of the match with Turkey.

Was this done in order to correctly distribute forces for the entire match?

- We planned to put pressure, but it turned out badly, since the opponent defended well.

The Hungarians played a long pass and cut our players.

We looked better in the second half.

But playing the entire hour and a half, pressing high, is very difficult with any team.

- Can we say that this training camp was a test for you?

- I can't call it a test.

For the first time in history, we played three games in such a short period of time.

In addition, the situation was aggravated by injuries and positive tests for coronavirus.

We went through a lot at these training camps, but the team found internal reserves to compensate for the absence of a number of players.

Thank you guys for this gathering.

It turned out to be ambiguous in terms of the result, since we wanted to score more points.

But planning at such a high level is simply frivolous.

- For the first time in a long time, you decided to play two strikers.

What was the reason for this decision?

- During the match.

We made a considerable number of raids on the flanks, followed by feeds into the opponent's penalty area.

Since the team had the initiative, there were more opportunities to effectively complete the attack with two forwards.

If in the match with Turkey it was not possible to make such a substitution, then today the game allowed it.

Alexander Sobolev and Artyom Dzyuba played together for the first time.

I hate this word, but this combination can be called a certain experiment.

I think the decision of the coaching staff was justified.

- What is the tournament strategy for our team now?

- There are two difficult matches with Serbia and Turkey ahead of us.

The main thing is that all the players we count on are healthy and ready.

It is difficult to predict something.

We started and finished this training camp in the first place, although we expected to score more points.

“Of all our last rivals, Russia is the strongest team”

In turn, the mentor of the Hungarian national team Marco Rossi did not hide his joy from the achieved result.

According to him, the draw was an excellent result of the meeting for the guests, which the whole country can be proud of.

- Over the past six days we have played three games, and today's one turned out to be the most difficult due to a number of reasons.

We had a very difficult time due to the high level of physical fitness of the Russian team.

Very strong and fast guys play in the opposing team.

Several times they significantly increased the pace of the match, and it was quite difficult for us.

Of all our recent rivals, Russia is the strongest team.

- Did you understand that the hosts will mainly play through casts in the direction of Dziuba?

- Despite the fact that we were preparing for this, it was not very possible to contain it.

It is not clear how to play against Dziuba.

Artyom is indeed a very important player for the Russian team.

We also assumed that we would face dangerous transitions from defense to attack.

Several times we found ourselves in a very risky position, and at some point we almost missed.

But in the end we managed to keep the draw.

I am satisfied with this result, because it was unrealistic to win.

My footballers gave their best and played with maximum dedication for the entire 90 minutes.

When you leave all of yourself on the field, the result recedes into the background.

I think all Hungarians today have every right to be proud of their national team.

- Do you think that Hungary looked better in Moscow than in the first match against the Russian national team?

- I can't say that.

Of course, we acted more carefully in defense and were able to avoid the mistakes that we made in Budapest.

On the other hand, in Moscow we had a hard time again.

The opponent exerted strong pressure.

But in some moments it was possible to show a good game ourselves.

We carried out a number of successful counterattacks.

For their part, they did everything that was possible. 

- Why did you choose more defensive tactics in Moscow than the match in Budapest?

- I don’t think we showed a fundamentally different football. We would like to act more actively and aggressively, but the opponent did not allow us to do this. In football, there is a very simple rule: when your team has the ball, you can attack. And if the opponent has it, you have to defend. Of course, I have not seen the statistics on the possession of the ball, but today we had to spend a lot of time in defense. In the first half, the Russian national team performed just a couple of crosses into our penalty area. In the second, the hosts began to push for real and created a number of dangerous moments. Therefore, we are happy with the result.