"I took the guys poorly": Karpin about talking with players, goals from set pieces and the "ghost" of Maribor

After the victory over Slovenia, the head coach of the Russian national team, Valery Karpin, was in a great mood. The specialist can be understood, because his players scored the most important three points and became the leaders of their qualifying group, ensuring their participation in the butt meetings. But the mentor himself was most happy that on Monday the domestic footballers looked much better than in the meeting with Slovakia.

“We are satisfied with the result.

Nothing worked with Slovakia, but today - much more.

And in defense, and in pressing, and in attack.

It is clear that you can never be 100% satisfied, but the impressions are positive.

The entire first half was very tense.

At the start, Slovenia had a little more possession of the ball, but it cannot be said that the opponents were creating chances.

Their pressure ended in nothing.

Nevertheless, I had to get nervous, because Slovenia, to put it mildly, is not the worst national team, ”Karpin summed up the results of the confrontation.

At the same time, he once again took the blame for the weak play in Kazan on himself, but called the main creators of the new success of the athletes.

“We played much better in Maribor.

This is the "fault" of the players.

They heard the same thing that I told you at the pre-match press conference: "It's my fault."

They heard that they were fine, and that I was the idiot.

"Playing in Kazan is not your level."

Today it turned out more like ours (level. -

) ", - said Karpin.

It is curious that before the briefing with journalists, he loudly celebrated the victory along with his players.

According to Igor Diveev, the footballers performed the famous song of the singer Aphrodite "Valera" in honor of the coach.

“Of course, everyone was shouting and yelling there.

Joyful emotions, but not from the song, but because they won on the road.

It's nice to be in first place in the group, "admitted Karpin.

Surprisingly, on Monday only the central defenders were hitting the foreign gates in the Russian national team.

In addition to Diveeva, Georgy Dzhikia distinguished himself.

And Spartak's goal turned out to be a masterpiece.

He sent the ball into the net with an overhead kick.

The coach emphasized that such standard draws were played enough in training.

“The goal itself turned out to be non-standard and unusual for a defender.

But we played like that.

True, they did not assume that someone would close the pitch in this way.

Slovenia has not missed corners for almost two years.

He took the guys on weak and urged to interrupt this series ", - the specialist revealed the secret.

After that, the team's headquarters faced another injury.

Diveeva had to be urgently changed due to damage.

Instead, Maxim Osipenko appeared on the field, who at first acted uncertainly.

“It was hard for him to get into such a game.

I think the first five to ten minutes were needed for the buildup.

In general, the intensity of the match turned out to be good, and therefore it was difficult to enter the battle on the fly, ”explained the mentor.

In his opinion, Dmitry Chistyakov is more comfortable playing according to the scheme of three central defenders, and therefore it was decided to leave him on the bench.

They did not change the captain Alexei Sutormin, who at the end of the first half received a yellow card and committed a number of fouls.

“We thought to remove him during the break because of the yellow card, but they didn’t.

We just talked with him and asked him to be more attentive, ”the coach added.

Karpin also did not see anything wrong with the fact that his players, having scored twice, gave the initiative to the opponent and even allowed the owners to quickly close the gap in the score.

“Until about the 30th minute the game was really equal.

And after that, one cannot say that one of the teams had a big advantage.

We scored two.

Whether you like it or not, Slovenia had to recoup, put more pressure and go on the attack.

And we needed to defend the result.

Therefore, to some extent, the course of the meeting has changed, ”he stressed.

But in the second half, the specialist actively gestured, urging the charges not to cuddle up to the goal.

According to Karpin, he wanted them to advance on the opponent's defenders and put pressure on them.

“In principle, a lot has been achieved today.

They put pressure on, forcing the opponents to make many passes back to Jan Oblak, and he had to clear the ball.

I wanted to continue playing like in the first half, ”said the coach.

However, during the second half of the meeting, the Russian was so active on the edge that in one of the episodes the judge approached him and asked him to calm down.

“I shouted out of emotion that there was a penalty kick on Zelimkhan Bakaev.

I don’t know if the violation actually took place in that episode or not.

He shouted, and the fourth referee, apparently, said something to the chief, ”the mentor explained what had happened.

And before the start of the match, he found himself in another curious situation - he was late for the performance of the hymns.

The specialist complained that he was not allowed to go to the bench across the field, and had to bypass him.

“I always follow the players.

It was just that the bench was on the other side, but they were not allowed to enter the lawn, I had to go around.

Nothing, I listened to the anthem outside the goal, ”the coach laughed.

Finally, they could not help asking him about the "ghost of Maribor", because Russia here in 2009 lost to Slovenia in a play-off match and failed to make it to the 2010 World Cup.

“I tried to convey to journalists that no ghosts exist, even before the match, if you don’t believe.

Football players are not like that.

We are brought to city X, to the hotel, to the stadium.

We play - we leave.

All the cities are already mixed.

We don't remember such things.

We are like artists on tour and they mix everything up.

At best, they remember the concert venue.

For example, I don’t remember where even the most iconic matches with my participation took place, ”the mentor said.

In conclusion, he congratulated the first vice-president of the RFU Nikita Simonyan on his 95th birthday and answered the question whether he still had a desire to get out into nature after the matches of the national team.

“What is left to do to get to the World Cup?

Score more or the same number of points as Croatia.

I want to rest, my thoughts have not changed - to hide away from a large number of people.

There is a desire to go back to the mountains and the forest, where there are fewer people and there are no press conferences, "Karpin summed up.