The Russian national team unsuccessfully completed the qualifying tournament of the World Cup - 2022. In the last round, it lost to Croatia on the road and could not directly break into the world championship in Qatar.
Now, in the spring, domestic football players will have to take part in the joints for the right to go to the championship.
After the meeting in Split, the players, for obvious reasons, were laconic.
Captain Georgy Dzhikia did not hide his disappointment with the result.
At the same time, he defended Fyodor Kudryashov, who scored into his own goal in the 81st minute.
In his opinion, this is a consequence of the mistakes of the entire team, and not of a specific performer.
“Offensive defeat.
We conceded this goal all together, there is no need to emphasize the names.
This is our common fault.
It's not easy for all of us, we all lost this game.
It is clear that there is silence in the dressing room, a bad mood.
Themselves could not stand it.
We are the only ones to blame for this ”, - quotes Djikia“ Match ”.
He also stressed that the team was fully aware of how strong a rival Croatia is.
However, this did not prevent the hosts from starting the match in an aggressive manner, which made the Russians unable to push the game away from their gates.
“The Croats started the game aggressively as we expected.
We had to defend ourselves for a longer time.
There were mistakes.
We started the attacks badly, because the opponents acted well, aggressively, ”added the footballer.
According to another defender, Igor Diveev, Russia could have played much better.
According to him, the team sought to control the ball more, but Zlatko Dalic's charges did not allow them to do this.
“Yes, it’s a shame we lost, but we didn’t play enough to win for sure.
I don't feel any emotions now.
Maybe something didn't work out for us, but we played to win.
Honestly, I don't remember how the ball was scored.
The pitch passed, and then I did not see.
Has it become more difficult after rebuilding into five defenders?
It was the same, ”explained Diveev.
He admitted that the atmosphere at the stadium did not put pressure on the Russians, although the overwhelming majority of the spectators in the stands drove the Croats forward.
“I like how they all support their country.
It was the same with the Danes when the stadium was driving them.
Russians, yes, it was heard.
Not so, of course, but audible.
Many thanks to them, they came and supported us, ”concluded the defender.
In turn, RFU President Alexander Dyukov noted that the national team had a chance to take away a draw from Split, but it was difficult to count on success in the absence of counterplay.
The rival, on the contrary, had an overwhelming advantage and constantly created dangerous moments at the gate of Matvey Safonov.
“Of course, everyone is disappointed.
We were ten minutes from the conquest of the direct ticket to Qatar.
We have a lot of time to sum up the results of the matches that the national team played in the fall, ”quotes the Sport-Express functionary.
But after hitting the joints, Karpin's contract was automatically extended - initially it was calculated until the end of this year.
Dyukov admitted that the coach will continue to work in the national team even if he does not qualify for the world championship, but noted that it is important to take into account the desire of the specialist himself.
“Of course, we set the task of reaching the World Cup, and we have a good chance of doing so.
There are play-offs ahead, we will fight for a ticket, "Dyukov stressed.
Some experts, however, met the failure extremely emotionally.
Thus, the best footballer of the USSR in 1972, Yevgeny Lovchev, left the studio of the Match Premier TV channel during a break due to dissatisfaction with the actions of the Russians.
In his opinion, with such a quality of football, the team has absolutely nothing to do in Qatar, and the second place in the group with the Croats cannot be called an achievement.
The famous coach Haji Hajiyev also called the expected defeat in Split.
The specialist is sure that Karpin's players had no chance of winning, although there was an opportunity to cling to a draw.
“The Croatians have maintained an advantage throughout the playing time.
They created serious pressure on the gates of the Russian national team for the entire match.
Our guys defended well, but they could not create good chances at the opponent's goal.
There were no chances of winning, of course.
But they could have played a draw for sure ... Now reaching the World Cup through play-offs is the same as winning against the Croats.
It's almost impossible.
Where can we get such a level of football and defeat high-class rivals, if it simply does not exist?
Of course, the outcome of the joints will depend on the opponents.
Everything is individual.
But today there was the most real chance that we missed, ”Sport24 quotes Hajiyev.
The ex-mentor of the national team Valery Gazzayev agreed with him and drew attention to the complete absence of scoring chances at the Croats' goal.
In addition, the UEFA Cup winner stressed that in deep defense during heavy rain, there is always a risk of making a mistake, and this ultimately happened.
“We put up a tight defense, which operated successfully, but it was necessary to show something in front ... In such a game, it is good to use counterattacks.
I wanted to see aggressive retaliation.
There was no counterplay, no pressure on the Croatian defense.
Sometimes two Croats remained in the defense, it was possible to catch them on a counterattack, but we did not.
An absolutely logical result, ”Gazzaev said.
Almost the only player whom experts noted with a plus sign in the Russian national team was Safonov, who was recognized as the best footballer of the match. As the ex-goalkeeper of the national team Vyacheslav Malafeev said, Matvey's actions gave additional emotions and strength to his partners. And the children's coach of the 22-year-old goalkeeper Alexei Chistyakov is sure that there can be no complaints about his former ward.
“At the moment when Matvey went far with the ball in the first half, my heart almost stopped. He proceeded from the situation in which he got: the ball was given weakly, the attacker had time to cover. If Matvey knocked out, there was a big risk of hitting the attacker, and the ball would fly into the goal. Of course, Safonov risked a little, but the risk was justified. As for the conceded ball, how can you expect a player to hit his own goal? A little closer - Matvey would have fought off, but the ricochet turned out to be in the very corner. It was only necessary to know that Kudryashov would get there. Safonov reacted, tried, but it was very difficult, ”the expert told the Championship.
Some did not see the disaster in defeat at all.
For example, according to the former Lokomotiv coach Yuri Semin, the Croatian national team has more qualified performers, but the young Russian team demonstrates a high level of discipline and will continue to progress.
“We have to support the national team before the next matches.
There are all kinds of cases.
The Croats had individual skill quite high, but they created practically nothing at our gates.
A pure case that helped them win ... The match was very interesting for me.
Our team did everything possible, in all components was well prepared for this game, but sometimes luck plays a role in football, "Semin said.
Zenit-2 mentor Vladislav Radimov believes that Karpin's coaching staff did everything possible for success, and Kudryashov's own goal in tragedy can be compared with the mistake made by goalkeeper Alexander Filimonov in 1999 in the match with Ukraine.
Former footballer of the national team Alexander Samedov, in turn, urged to support the 34-year-old defender, noting that he should not pay attention to criticism in his address.
Another ex-midfielder of the national team, Alexander Mostovoy, said that Fedor was not to blame for the episode with his own goal.
Allegedly, the ball bounced off the ground before hitting him in the leg, which made it difficult to navigate in time.
“If he was Copperfield, he would stop and not run.
But he is not Copperfield, but a defender and runs into this zone.
It so happened that the ball bounced off the ground and hit him in the leg.
I would not blame Fedor, the pressure from the Croats was at a high level throughout the match, ”the expert expressed his opinion.
He also admitted that the Russians could well have kept the draw due to difficult weather conditions.
At the same time, Mostovoy refused to call the game of the domestic team cowardly, since the owners themselves forced them to act in a similar vein.
“Did Karpin take the blame?
What's the fault?
I don't see any guilt here.
Why make excuses?
Nothing like that happened, we didn’t concede with a difference of three goals.
This is not a match with Denmark at Euro - there was something to justify.
In play-offs for ours there is nothing terrible.
We just killed the pathos around the national team a little now.
Although after the national team of Cherchesov anyone could have been, it would not have been worse, ”added Mostovoy.
There were also those who, after the final whistle in Split, recalled Artem Dziuba's non-challenge.
So, the agent Roman Oreshchuk emphasized that for the game in such weather there would be no better person than the Zenit forward.
“I know, haters will come running now.
Yes, I don't like Artyom as a person.
But for today this is our best striker.
He can accept and score ... But!
Pride, she is.
And it doesn't matter that the entry to the World Championship is at stake, ”Oreshchuk wrote on Twitter.