Mostovoy’s departure, Zakharyan’s Spanish and Karpin’s “stupid” answer: the Russian team has completed preparations for the match with Serbia

Without Vlahovic, but with Babic

On Thursday, the Russian national football team will play its first friendly match in 2024.

Moreover, it will finally take place at home - at the VTB Arena.

The rival of Valery Karpin's team will be a team from Serbia.

According to Sport Express, the match will be judged by a team of referees from Turkey under the leadership of Arda Kardeshler, and the game will begin with a minute of silence in memory of journalist Vasily Utkin.

Before the starting whistle, the RFU plans to show video clips with his vivid comments.

Unfortunately, tennis player Novak Djokovic will not be among the spectators in the stands.

The first racket of the world, despite his withdrawal from the Masters series tournament in Miami, considered it inappropriate to return to Europe in the near future.

However, even without him, a large number of fans are expected at the stadium.

To attract attention to the sparring, an announcement of a meeting with the participation of Serbian-Russian actor Milos Bikovich, who became especially popular after the film “Slave,” was even filmed.

Since Dragan Stojkovic’s team is a fairly serious opponent, foreign players were called up to the national team: Daler Kuzyaev, Alexey Miranchuk, Alexander Golovin, as well as Arsen Zakharyan.

All of them arrived in Novogorsk on Monday.

One of the last to join his compatriots was the Real Sociedad football player.

However, he had objective reasons for the delay: the athlete took part in the match of the 29th round of La Liga with Cadiz and scored his first goal in the Spanish Championship.

Therefore, the midfielder came to Moscow in a great mood.

Although he admitted that the club expects more from him.

“And in Russia too.

But it never put pressure on me and doesn’t put pressure on me now.

I'm calm about this.

Of course, the fans in such a club are demanding, but I have not yet encountered any hatred or negativity.

Everyone is friendly, everyone is supportive.

Everything is great in this regard.

I think in Russia they like to scold you more, but here there is more support.

It seems so to me,” said the footballer.

At the same time, Valery Karpin remembered Zakharyan’s address to Real Sociedad fans and jokingly advised him to learn more Spanish.

It should be noted that both sparrings should be special for the athlete, because they will take place at the player’s home stadium, Dynamo. 

Meanwhile, according to Panathinaikos goalkeeper Yuri Lodygin, in addition to the players already listed, two or three more representatives of the national team can safely go to Europe.

“It’s not easy, I’m not saying that they will go and immediately become the main ones.

But the level allows you to go there, there is nothing special.

The main thing is approach, mentality, calmness, concentration and seriousness.

If we put this together, then at least the whole team can go play in Europe,” the goalkeeper noted.

The full national team held only a few training sessions.

Alas, not all of the called-up players remained with the national team.

CSKA defender Igor Diveev, who was injured in the Russian Cup match with Rostov (2:0), almost immediately left the team.

And on Wednesday it became known that Andrei Mostovoy returned to Zenit due to an ankle injury.

“We won’t invite anyone.

We have 23 field players.

It's enough.

Including in his position,” Karpin noted.

The opponent's losses are much more serious.

In particular, one of the Serbian leaders, Dusan Vlahovic, did not fly to Moscow: the Juventus forward was injured.

Defenders Aleksa Terzic and Matija Nastasic will also miss the upcoming matches.

Filip Mladenovic and Srdjan Babic have been called up instead.

The next sparring partner of the Russians, Paraguay, also has problems.

Spartak midfielder Jesus Medina will not be able to take part in the friendly match on March 25.

He has a muscle injury in his left thigh.

Old topics in a new format

On the eve of the confrontation with Serbia, the press service of the national team staged an experiment.

On Tuesday, football players and coaches communicated with journalists in a talk show format.

The event took place at the base in Novogorsk. 

However, media representatives still had the same questions for the coaching staff: first of all, regarding the composition of the team.

Thus, many were surprised by the absence of Spartak forward Alexander Sobolev and Lokomotiv midfielder Maxim Glushenkov.

According to Valery Georgievich, both are still underperforming at the clubs.

“Sobolev played in St. Petersburg, you saw the game.

For the next match he did not make it into the starting lineup.

Both the training camp and those two games were taken into account.

Physical condition is also important... Glushenkov?

If you look at the lineup, there are six wingers.

I don't think this is his position.

Having Golovin, Alexey Miranchuk, Pinyaev, Oblyakov, Mostovoy and Zinkovsky, why call him?” said the mentor.

Karpin also explained the non-calling of red-and-white defender Georgy Dzhikia and Dynamo midfielder Daniil Fomin. 

“I didn’t communicate with the Spartak player.

Fomin is not there because we cannot call up 15 defensive midfielders.

And so it’s already too much.

They called in those who are better prepared at the moment,” Karpin noted.

Goalkeeper coach Vitaly Kafanov, in turn, explained the absence of Sergei Pesyakov and Ilya Lantratov in Novogorsk.

Both, according to the expert, are not performing in the best way in the championship.

“I think the Rostov goalkeeper wants to join the Russian national team, but he also understands: he had several unsuccessful matches in the fall.

To get into the national team, you need to play consistently over a long period.

I can tell you why Igor Leshchuk was considered, but was not called.

He performs well, but hasn’t had many meetings.

Lantratov is a good goalkeeper.

In my opinion, now he is different from the Ilyusha who was last year.

It’s not because the team doesn’t win, it scores in every game.

Let's just say that last year he took the goals that he misses now.

Although this is not on his conscience.

It seems to me that now Ilyusha is not only not having the best period, but he can play better,” said Kafanov.

As for the fate of Karpin himself in the national team, whose contract expires in August 2024, negotiations, according to the head of the RFU Alexander Dyukov, should begin in the near future.

“Any agreement is the result of the consent of the two parties.

The fact that Karpin is the head coach of the Russian national team speaks of trust in him,” the functionary previously said.

Valery Georgievich, in turn, admitted that he was ready to continue working with the national team.

"Yes I want to.

But this is a stupid answer, not stupid - we'll see.

I am not an employer, so first you need some kind of proposal, desire, some kind of negotiations.

We haven’t talked yet,” the Sport24 specialist quotes.

The national team players are also not against continuing to cooperate with Karpin.

According to Daniil Khlusevich, his main advantage is sincerity.

“Never hides anything.

This is one of the strongest qualities,” the footballer told the Championship.

At the same time, the head coach complained about the unprofessionalism of some journalists who take his words out of context and thus negatively affect his image.

At the same time, according to the mentor, he has long been trying not to pay attention to this.

“The emotions that we may have after the games, we cannot say what we think.

One hundred percent will be taken out of context.

They have their own job, we have ours, I understand that.

They want it fried.

“Footballers need to leave” - taken out of context?

Of course it was torn out.

Because it was like this: “If there is a good offer from the top 5 in Europe, is it worth leaving?

Yes, it's worth it."

And at the exit - “you need to leave.”

But nothing bothers me anymore.

This happens all the time with any phrase.

If someone needs to take something out of context, he will do it,” said Valery Georgievich.

On the eve of the match with Serbia, the players had a more pleasant event than communicating with the media: a photo shoot in the new uniform.

The Miranchuk brothers were especially attentive to their image.

Both categorically forbade stylists from touching their hairstyles.

And Golovin finally saw the T-shirt and shorts live.

According to him, she looks much worse in the photo.

I was also pleasantly surprised by Kafanov’s clothes.

But, according to the trainer, now it is very important to see how it will look after the first wash.

“If after this everything remains as it was, then we have a company that can dress teams of this level for competitions,” the specialist concluded.