Russia beat Portugal

Author: Gia Saralidze, exclusive to VK

The Russian national team won an important victory over its main rival for the World Cup qualifying group in 2014.

Russia - Portugal 1-0

Fabio Capello has once again proved that he is a specialist of high class. Under his leadership the Russian national team managed to beat the semi-finalists of the recent European Championship. Having opened the score at the beginning of the match, the Russian players had to fend off Portuguese attacks during almost all the game, showing their skills, discipline and patience.

Already in the sixth minute of the game at Luzhniki, Roman Shirokov with a great pass put Alexander Kerzhakov one on one with the goalkeeper of Portugal. Central defense of the guests in this episode missed the push of the Russian forward who easily managed to go around the goalkeeper. Having missed the push, the Portuguese shook u, took over the ball and the initiative, and led methodical siege of Igor Akinfeev’s goal. Dangerous moments began to appear with alarming frequency, but bad luck Akinfeev and selfless play of Russian defense prevented the Portuguese from restoring balance. And the less time the Portuguese had to remedy the situation, the calmer Capello’s players played, and the more nervous celebrity guests became. The tactical substitutions by Capello, who made changes in the defensive actions of his team on the left-back, where Nani just tortured Kambarov, also helped the Russian team. As a result, Yeshchenko came to this position, and the breaks on the left-back became not so dangerous. As a result, the Russian team outstayed and won the much-needed three points in a very difficult match.

Armenia - Italy 1:3

Armenian team lost at home to the Italian team. This was down to the higher class of Italians, who deservedly won. The match was not easy. The first half ended with a 1-1 draw. The Armenians responded by the great goal by Mkhitaryan to the penalty by Pirlo. But in the second half the Italians by means of the efforts of De Rossi and Osvaldo beat the Armenian national team and got three important points, which allowed Italy to lead its qualifying group.

Ireland - Germany 1:6

In Group C, the German team literally wiped out the team of Ireland. The heroes of the match were the young players of the German team - Kroos and Royce, who scored two goals each.

Kazakhstan - Austria 0-0

In another match of the group the team of Kazakhstan on its pitch was able to deprive the team of Austria of two points; this team had recently fought on equal terms with the powerful German team. The Austrians toughly attacked, but they could not break the defense of Kazakhstan, thereby worsening their tournament prospects.

Turkey - Romania 0:1

Rather suddenly, Turkey lost the match of Group D to the team of Romania. Thus the Romanians in the next game can compete with the Dutch for the leadership of the group; the team of Turkey, in turn, will need to do its best to engage in the struggle for getting to the 2014 World Cup.

Moldova - Ukraine 0:0

Surprisingly, after the great game at Wembley against the English team the Ukrainians tied the game with Moldovans. Ukrainian team squandered a lot of convenient moments and eventually lost very important points from the point of view of the tournament.

Finland - Georgia 1:1

In case of their victory the Georgians could catch up the teams of Spain and France by the scoring, and I must say they were close to it. In the 56th minute of the match Kashia managed to attack the goal of the hosts. In three minutes the Finns were short-handed after the removal of Eremenko. But in four minutes Hämäläinen leveled the match. Until the last minutes of the game the teams were trying to get the victory, because the draw was untenable for both teams, but in the end the teams had to settle for one point.