All participants of the FIFA World Cup quarter-finals, which is taking place in Russia, were determined yesterday. Master of sports of international class, Soviet and Russian football player and coach Sergey Kiryakov summed up results of the round of sixteen matches.
"Artem Dzyuba's performance was a surprise for me. I was a forward in the past, so I know how hard it is to play against high-level opponents. He has to fight for every opportunity to get the ball. It takes a lot of energy, and you have to preserve it during such a long game," Kiryakov said.
Speaking about the way Alexander Golovin played, he said: "I hope this young, talented player will become a star of a very high level."
"I would also like to mention Sergey Ignashevich, who returned to the national team and helped it. Igor Akinfeyev is a man who proved all doubters wrong, showed that he's among the best goalkeepers in the world," he noted.
He also highlighted great physical condition of all players, great work of the coaching staff.
In addition to the fact that Russian team reached quarter-finals, he said that the fact that Germany got last place in its group is another sensation of the World Cup. It was reported yesterday that head coach of the German national football team Joachim Low will keep his post, despite team's failure at the World Cup.
"Germans are famous for thoroughly studying their own mistakes: the International Coaching Congress is held there every year, and I think all the results of this analysis will be presented there. A large group of specialists works on every match, carefully examines every game, every team. Everything will be analyzed based on this. Germans have done this many times already. We will see a completely different German national team in the near future, believe me.
I was surprised by physical condition of German players, in particular leaders of the team, who led this team in the past. Germans are known for how they play during last minutes of the match, during tense game, when opponent gets tired. They often managed to win in such conditions. Something went wrong this time. I think that many players who have already achieved a lot in football will leave and many new good, talented players will come to replace them. I have no doubt that they will show that thay are equal to their predecessors in the near future," Kiryakov said.
