Smolov's first goal in two years and Bakaev's exact hit from the penalty spot: how Russia forced out a victory over Malta in the selection of the 2022 World Cup

The match with Malta was the last for the Russian national team in the September segment of the qualifying stage of the World Cup - 2022. Under the leadership of Valery Karpin, the team first parted with Croatia (0: 0), and then beat Cyprus with some difficulty (2: 0).

Now it was necessary to gain the duty three points in the home confrontation with the "dwarf".

However, it was definitely not worth underestimating the opponent.

Davis Manji's wards look quite decent in the current qualification and scored four points in five meetings, taking points away from the Cypriots (0: 3) and the Slovaks (2: 2).

And at the pre-match press conference Karpin, together with Fedor Smolov, it was no coincidence that they said they respect the opponent.

Moreover, the owners themselves approached the confrontation with serious losses.

On Monday, the company Stanislav Magkeev, Sergei Petrov, Dmitry Chistyakov, Daniil Fomin and Mario Fernandez in the infirmary was Alexander Golovin, who was diagnosed with muscle damage.

But Alexey Ionov managed to recover, who missed the match with the Cypriots.

As a result, Karpin managed to surprise the fans.

Firstly, Igor Diveev's company in the center of defense was not Georgy Dzhikia, but Maxim Osipenko.

It remains to be assumed that the coaching staff decided to save the Spartak player.

Secondly, Ilya Samoshnikov remained in reserve, and the universal Daler Kuzyaev took the place on the right flank of the defense.

Vyacheslav Karavaev returned to his native left.

The composition of the three midfielders due to the loss of Golovin also turned out to be slightly modified.

Dmitry Barinov is located in the support zone, while Aleksey Miranchuk joined Alexander Erokhin.

Finally, Smolov, who was expected to receive the captain's armband, was supported from the flanks by Arsen Zakharyan and just Ionov.

The first half left an extremely controversial impression.

On the one hand, Russia, like in Cyprus, actively started the match and scored an early goal.

More precisely, the guests themselves presented it to Karpin's wards.

For some reason, they regularly tried to play a projectile from their gates with the bottom and each time experienced difficulties under pressure.

As a result, in the tenth minute goalkeeper Anri Bonello and defender Steve Borg made a gross mistake.

The latter gave an unsuccessful pass back, and Smolov beat his opponent in a subcategory and opened the scoring.

So, the bandage helped the striker to score the first goal in the national team in more than two years.

But later the owners started having problems.

They apparently believed in their success and slowed down.

In any case, the Maltese even seized the initiative for a while.

Especially often they had attacks on the right flank, where Karavaev could not cope with the fast and technical Joseph Mbong.

Fortunately, it did not come to dangerous moments.

Soon the Russians came to their senses, but still did not please the fans gathered at the Otkrytie-Arena with sparkling football.

It was felt that they perceptibly lacked teamwork and calmness.

And marriage was always present in the actions.

The decisive transmissions often turned out to be inaccurate, or the partners simply did not understand each other.

Not surprisingly, before the break, you can only recall Miranchuk's inaccurate long-range strike.

At the end of the first half, the guests almost scored.

Karpin's team decided to repeat the opponent's effective blot.

Kuzyaev gave an extremely unsuccessful pass back to Marinato Guilherme.

Luke Montebello calmly intercepted the ball and from an acute angle tried to throw it into the goal from outside the penalty area.

Only by a miracle did the shell pass near the far post.

It was obvious that what was happening did not suit Karpin, and during the break he made it clear by making a double substitution.

The place of absolutely inert Zakharyan on the left flank of the attack was taken by Zelimkhan Bakaev.

And Roman Zobnin, who had never entered the field with the new coach, entered the game instead of Erokhin.

But at first the castling data did not help much.

The Russian national team was still in possession of the ball, but acted absolutely without ideology.

It was unclear exactly how the domestic team was going to hack the opponent's defense.

Unfortunately, a huge number of blots and palpable nervousness have not gone anywhere.

In addition, the last gear was clearly lacking, and Smolov regularly had to sink into the depths.

The Maltese were not at all afraid to go forward and created much more dangerous moments.

The owners could not cope with the ubiquitous Mbong, who seemed to be in time everywhere and did not commit a single loss.

Only in the second half, he struck several shots on goal Guilherme.

The most unpleasant shot was the 65th minute.

In this episode, the entire line of defense played ugly.

Ilya Samoshnikov, who replaced Miranchuk, allowed Montebello to deliver a serve from the right flank, and Mbong shot from under Diveyevo from close range into the opposite direction to the goalkeeper.

The goalkeeper showed miracles of reaction and managed to save the team.

Only after that, the forces began to leave the guests.

And Karpin's castling began to bear fruit.

With the departure of Miranchuk, Karavaev moved to the right flank of the defense, and Samoshnikov closed the left.

The appearance of Ilya as a whole helped to turn off Mbonga from the game.

Kuzyaev went up to the middle of the field.

And in the end, the coaching staff, in addition, refreshed the attacking line, throwing Anton Zabolotny and Rifat Zhemaletdinov into the battle.

As a result, the last minutes, in contrast to the meeting in Nicosia, remained with the Russians.

Moreover, they even managed to distinguish themselves for the second time and put an end to the confrontation.

After Kuzyaev's shot from within the penalty area, Ryan Kamenzuli played with his hand.

The referee pointed to the penalty spot, and Bakaev confidently converted the penalty.

Moreover, in the time added by the referee, the hosts could well have brought the case to defeat.

After a corner kick, Osipenko seemed to have pushed the projectile into someone else's goal, but the assistant referees on VAR, after watching the replay, decided that the opponent had time to clear the ball out of the line.

Thus, the national team scored three points on duty, but played another incomprehensible match with a team clearly inferior in class.

To top it all off, Mirachnuk got the second yellow card in qualifying.

Now Alexey will miss the most important game with Slovakia.