Four matches without victories: the Russian national team could not score without Dziuba in Chisinau and drew

Experiments from Cherchesov

November, like October, turned out to be extremely tense for the Russian national team.

Stanislav Cherchesov's charges will again play three matches in a week.

Key games with Turkey and Serbia in the League of Nations were preceded by an away friendly meeting with Moldova. 

This team, which occupies only 175th place in the FIFA rating, crossed with the Russian squad only for the fourth time in history.

The current match was missed by the team's captain Artyom Dziuba.

Nevertheless, the head coach of the hosts Engin Firat noted that the Russian national team "is in the best shape over the past 20 years."

In turn, Stanislav Cherchesov took advantage of the convenient opportunity and from the first minutes decided to test several young players in the case.

In particular, Igor Diveev made his debut in the national team.

In the center of defense, the CSKA footballer paired up Georgy Dzhikia.

And 23-year-old Dynamo player Daniil Fomin is located in the center of midfield.

At the forefront of the attack, the coaching staff did not release the Spartak player Alexander Sobolev, but the army player Fyodor Chalov.

It was Jikia who tried on the captain's armband in Dziuba's absence.

At the same time, Anton Zabolotny, Alexander Erokhin and Daniil Lesovoy were not included in the application for the game.

On Wednesday, their tests for coronavirus gave a dubious result, but retesting did not reveal the disease. 

With this composition, we start against Moldova.

Forward, Russia 🇷🇺 # OurGuys # TeamRussiapic.twitter.com / 7UraVNtpGl

- Russian national team (@TeamRussia) November 12, 2020

Pointless pressure from Russia

With the referee's starting whistle, the Russian footballers, as expected, took the ball under their control as a favorite.

And already on the eighth minute, the guests created the first truly dangerous moment.

Aleksey Miranchuk, after Chalov's discount from the penalty area, shot into the far corner, but the experienced goalkeeper Stanislav Namashko moved the round to the corner. 

Subsequently, Cherchesov's wards continued to possess the ball (59% in the first half), but did not often threaten the opponent's goalkeeper's possessions.

The hosts carefully defended with a low block with almost the entire team and did not allow domestic players to approach their own penalty area.

The Russians, on the other hand, in order to overcome the echeloned opponent's defense, as if they lacked speed, strength and desire.

As a rule, their combinations took place in the middle of the field.

Sometimes the guests tried to transfer the game to the flanks, especially to the right wing, where Miranchuk moved to help Alexey Ionov and Vyacheslav Karavaev.

It was from Alexei that the fans were waiting for the last pass, but there were no memorable actions from him other than a dangerous strike before the break. 

Chalov also did not actively cling to the ball, who, it seemed, did not feel very comfortable in the national team jersey.

And the partners did not give him good passes too often.

The defenders of the opponent, on the contrary, watched the forward of the army team as closely as possible.

With this course of the meeting, Fomin made him talk about himself, who struck a couple of blows from a long distance.

After the first the ball went to the corner, and with the second Namashko coped with some difficulty.

He also saved the team after Chalov shot from the corner of the goalkeeper's corner in the 33rd minute.

In general, Stanislav made five saves in the first half, while Marinato Guilherme - none.

The ball practically did not reach the goal of the Russian national team, and the Moldovans struck only four hits (not a single one on target) against the opponent's nine.

Blanched second half

During the break, Cherchesov made one replacement.

The place of the almost imperceptible Alexei Ionov on the right flank of the midfield appeared Konstantin Kuchaev, who, like his teammate Diveev, played the first match for the national team.

And a little later, CSKA football player Ivan Obljakov made his debut in the national team.

However, this did not affect the actions of the guests.

Cherchesov's wards continued to own the ball, but they still did it at a considerable distance from the opponent's goal.

But if in the first half they at least occasionally created dangerous moments, then in the second they practically did not show anything.

Aleksey Miranchuk was absolutely invisible.

At the 67th minute, Cherchesov changed him to his brother Anton, and a little earlier put Alexander Sobolev on the field instead of Chalov.

The latter was remembered for only one dangerous blow, and after the break he simply fell out of the game. 

The Spartak striker almost scored with the first touch.

Just after Anton Miranchuk's transfer, the young striker delivered a dangerous blow from the semicircle of the penalty area, but the ball went near the post.

And soon an inaccurate long-range shot was marked by another footballer who replaced the player - Andrei Mostovoy. 

It seemed that with the release of fresh players, the Russian national team would try to snatch victory, but the ending of the domestic team was not very successful.

The Moldovans calmly kept the finishing heap of Cherchesov's charges, who were noticeably lacking in speed.

They also lacked desire in the last minutes.

Young debutants Kuchaev and Oblyakov did not show themselves in any special way.

Konstantin was remembered for only one dangerous cutting pass into someone else's penalty area.

Thus, the Russian national team, having played not the brightest and most memorable match, extended the losing streak to four meetings.

Moreover, the domestic squad failed to hit the opponent's goal in the second game in a row.