Goals by Zakharyan and Makarov, two passes by Chalov: the Russian national team started at the youth Euro 2021 with a crushing victory

In the first match of the group stage of the European Youth Football Championship, the Russian team met with the Icelandic team.

The format of the tournament with 16 participants did not involve meetings with easy opponents, but against the background of the star French and impressive performances in the qualification of the Danes, the wards of David-Snorri Jonasson seemed a little less formidable.

This was partly confirmed by many experts.

Ex-mentor of the youth team Alexander Grishin and former Dynamo footballer Igor Kolyvanov, although they paid tribute to the Vikings, called them underdogs in the confrontation with the Russians.

The status of favorites to the national team was ensured not only by high marks from well-known specialists.

In modern football, the level of a player is invariably correlated with his value, and in this aspect the Russians were significantly superior to their opponents.

Suffice it to say that the famous Transfermarkt portal estimated Fyodor Chalov (€ 12 million) and Alexander Maksimenko (€ 11 million) higher than the entire Icelandic team (€ 10.33).

And this despite the fact that almost a third of this amount accounted for the central midfielder "Norrkoping" Isak-Bergmann Jouhannesson (€ 3 million).

This match showed that Mikhail Galaktionov is not going to deviate from his favorite 4-2-3-1 scheme, while there were some interesting changes.

So, the place on the right flank of the defense was taken by Pavel Maslov, who plays the role of one of the three central defenders in Spartak, and Danil Glebov, who left the bench for most of the qualifying tournament, was paired with Ivan Oblyakov in the support zone.

The top three attackers were Daniil Lesovoy, Denis Makarov and Fedor Chalov, and the main sensation was the appearance of Arsen Zakharyan at the base.

Until now, the 17-year-old midfielder has not played a single game for the youth team, and only after Sandro Schwartz came to the coaching bridge he became actively involved in the senior Dynamo team.

It is also important that in this meeting he took a position under the forwards, although the German plays the role of a winger.

Even before the start of the match, Russian footballers expressed concern about the state of the lawns at the European Championship.

Dynamo forward Vyacheslav Grulev was dissatisfied with the training field in Hungary and admitted that it is not only more difficult to show something of football qualities on it, but you can also get injured.

However, it later became clear that similar claims could be made against the covering of the Alzufer stadium in Gyor.

It was clearly not of the best quality, which was well felt by both the Russians and the Icelanders.

At one of the sites, water accumulated, which clearly interfered with the athletes.

Perhaps this was the reason that the Russian national team could not establish control over the game for a long time.

Galaktionov's wards had more possession of the ball, but there were practically no dangerous moments.

The only exception was Chalov's blow after a pass from the flank, and several attempts to break through from outside the penalty area.

True, the Icelanders, who acted in their trademark forceful manner, could not answer with anything serious.

This was fully felt by Maksimenko, who found himself on the lawn after a collision with an opponent's forward.

It is noteworthy that he turned out to be Sveinn Gudjohnsen - the son of the former Chelsea and Barcelona striker Eidur.

In the last third of the half, the Russian national team finally got used to the Alzufer stadium and immediately hit the opponent's goal three times.

Moreover, one of the main creators of success was young Zakharyan, who took part in organizing two goals.

In both cases, he dribbled into the Icelanders' penalty area, but if in the first case he limited himself to the earned penalty, then in the second he outplayed the goalkeeper.

Chalov did not lag behind him.

First, the CSKA forward confidently converted the 11-meter, and then brought his teammate Nair Tiknizyan to the strike.

He sent the ball right into the corner and scored for the first time for the youth team.

Thus, the second half turned into a formality, but the Russians spent the first segment with shock.

Almost every attack of Galaktionov's charges was dangerous, and almost all of them went through the right flank.

Makarov looked very bright and very soon his efforts paid off.

The Rubin midfielder entered the penalty area, wound up two defenders and shot into the far bottom corner.

And Chalov gave him a pass again.

The rest of the meeting took place under the dictation of domestic players, and only a small segment at the end of an hour of the game became unsuccessful.

First, Maslov received an injury to the back of the thigh, and after a couple of minutes the Icelanders took one ball back.

Diveev and Evgeniev missed Gudjohnsen Jr.'s snatch and allowed him to deliver an accurate head blow.

However, this did not greatly spoil the mood of the Russians, and in the second half of the half, the substitutes got a chance to prove themselves.

In the period from the 61st to the 77th minute, Galaktionov made all five substitutions.

The footballers who entered the field did not spoil the overall picture, but they also could not be noted for effective actions.

At the same time, Alexander Lomovitsky and Konstantin Tyukavin were the closest to the goal, but both lacked a bit of luck.

The Russian national team won a major victory over the Icelandic team and successfully started their performance at the European Youth Championship in Hungary and Slovakia. In the second round of the group stage, Galaktionov's charges will face off against the French, who are considered one of the main favorites of the tournament.