For the Russian national team, the away meeting with Malta is actually the ideal way to start qualifying for the 2022 World Cup.
Thanks to a comfortable schedule, Stanislav Cherchesov's wards may not speed up the preparation for the start of the selection, but competently distribute forces for all three March meetings.
At the same time, in a confrontation with a notorious group outsider, the coaching staff has the opportunity either to focus on developing team interactions, or to give the leaders a rest before key matches.
The island team, in view of the low rating, was initially assigned an unenviable role in the H sextet. Outside the lower division of the League of Nations, the team performed extremely poorly and had not won really serious rivals for a very long time.
As part of the qualification for Euro 2020, the islanders lost nine meetings out of ten, and won their only victory over the Faroe Islands, as modest as they are.
The last major success dates back to June 2017.
Then at a party Ukraine was beaten thanks to the accurate blow of Zach Muscat.
True, due to the excess of the number of allowed substitutions (with six allowed, the Maltese made nine, and the Ukrainians made ten) the match was not recognized as official, and Malta did not receive any points in the FIFA rating.
Like the Ukrainians, Russian footballers have met with the Malta team only once in their history.
True, this happened much earlier and there was no sensation.
In 1996, Oleg Romantsev's charges took over with a score of 2: 0, and Valery Karpin and Sergey Kiryakov scored goals.
Since then, the islanders have not been able to make any noticeable progress, and remained one of the most coveted opponents in the qualifying stages of the competition for the vast majority of national teams.
For comparison, the rivals of the Russian national team in Group H were not so lucky with the schedule.
Croatia will have to face off against strong Slovenia, which it has beaten only twice in history with a difference of two goals.
Slovakia, on the other hand, is waiting for a trip to Cyprus, which also cannot be called an easy walk.
Of course, the charges of Nikos Kostenoglu are not able to fight on equal terms with opponents superior in the class, but they are able to thoroughly spoil their blood.
In qualifying for the 2020 European Championship, they lost twice to the Scots with a minimum score, and on a visit they almost took points from Cherchesov's squad.
In addition, they lost to the Belgians at home only with a difference of two goals, which can also be considered a success.
Thus, it was the Russian national team that got the opportunity to start the tournament in training mode and smoothly roll into it.
Cherchesov has at least two tasks, the solution of which he can devote to a meeting with Malta.
The first of them was to test the basis in a game, although not of the most intense nature, but still bore an official status.
Taking into account the fact that the last time the team had the optimal selection of performers in the attacking line more than a year ago, there was every reason for this.
We are talking about Artyom Dzyuba, Alexander Golovin and Alexei Miranchuk.
The first of them is considered the strongest domestic striker, and the other two are the best players in the middle line, capable of becoming full-fledged leaders of the national team over time.
The last time all three took to the field in confrontation with San Marino and helped defeat the outsider with a score of 5: 0.
Subsequently, Cherchesov never had the opportunity to count on a star trio.
First, the Monaco midfielder was injured, then the Atalanta midfielder fell ill with the coronavirus, and then there was a scandalous story with the Zenit forward.
The head coach has been repeatedly criticized for failing to find a place on the field for all three Russian stars, and a match with an outsider could be an excellent opportunity to prove otherwise.
Domestic footballers will be forced to hack the opponent's defense and attack positionally for all 90 minutes.
For the technical midfielder, this is the perfect opportunity to convince Cherchesov that their joint presence on the pitch has a right to life.
And this will certainly benefit the national team both in the present and in the future.
Nevertheless, Cherchesov can take a different path and set up a semi-reserve squad.
Firstly, this will allow the coaching staff to form a more detailed opinion about the nearest reserve, many of which may be in demand already during the European Championship.
Moreover, in the context of Golovin and Miranchuk, this is of particular importance, because both risk arriving in Malta less than a day before the start of the match.
In this case, they will be able to carry out only one training session with partners and are unlikely to be in optimal shape.
Speaking about checking the reserve, first of all we are talking about the defensive line, which cannot boast of selecting high-quality performers.
For example, the invitation of Alexander Zhirov from Sandhausen is causing serious questions among fans and experts.
The team occupies the penultimate place in the second Bundesliga and has 47 conceded goals in 26 meetings.
Only "Wurzburger Kickers" (52 goals), located at the bottom of the standings, allowed themselves to hit their own goal more often.
Yes, the Russian can safely be considered one of the leaders of the team, because he takes the third place in the number of minutes played (1802) and the fourth - according to WhoScored (6.8).
But so far this is a weak argument for attracting him to the first team.
At the same time, Cherchesov's decision would be more understandable if it was a question of a young defender, but in January the native of Barnaul celebrated his 30th birthday.
The match with Malta could be an ideal test for Zhirov and answer the question of how necessary his presence in the national team is.
The same applies to Roman Neustädter, who is extremely irregular in playing practice at Dynamo.
The class of both is more than enough so as not to spoil the overall picture, thanks to which those who will be staked in the next two matches - Georgy Dzhikia and Andrei Semyonov - will get the opportunity to rest.
Ilya Samoshnikov's debut should not be ruled out.
In Russia, the choice of left-backs is extremely limited, and therefore, in the national team, 37-year-old Yuri Zhirkov and 33-year-old Fyodor Kudryashov are forced to take on such an energy-consuming role.
Undoubtedly, both veterans still demonstrate a high level of skill, but gradually age takes its toll.
First of all, this applies to the Zenit player.
This season, he spent only 873 minutes on the field (48.5 on average) for Petersburgers in all tournaments.
For comparison, in the past it was used significantly more - 1546 minutes (55.2).
It is also important to give the flanking midfielders a chance to prove themselves - Reziuan Mirzov and Rifat Zhemaletdinov.
With a successful combination of circumstances, the first can become an alternative to the skilled, but traumatic Denis Cheryshev on the left flank, and the second - to the experienced, but not enough stars from the sky, Alexei Ionov.
Thus, the midfielder of Krasnodar entered the field in five matches of the last League of Nations, but did not show any effective action and was awarded a score of 6.26 according to WhoScored - the 19th result in the team.
In addition to the aforementioned players, Alexander Sobolev could have appeared in the match with Malta from the first minutes.
Over the past two seasons, the forward has consistently scored more than ten goals in the RPL and is among the top scorers of the championship, but he has never made it to the starting lineup of the national team.
At the moment, he spent only 76 minutes in total for her, having managed to hit the opponent's gate once.
In addition, the decision to set up an experimental squad will allow Cherchesov not only to assess the nearest reserve, but also to gain an advantage over competitors.
According to the regulations, the current qualifying cycle will be held in four stages - in March and September, opponents will hold three meetings in nine days, and in October and November - two in six.
In a busy schedule, extra breathing space won't hurt the leaders.
On March 27, the national team will play against Slovenia, in contrast to future opponents, forced to immediately turn on at full capacity.
Undoubtedly, the match with Croatia will take away enough strength from the charges of Matjaz Kek, which, coupled with a tight schedule and a flight to Sochi, can seriously affect their condition.