Russian national team player Roman Pavlyuchenko during the match against England, Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, October 17, 2007
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Russian Footballers Off to Championship
The Russian national soccer team scored a fantastic 2:1 victory over England in front of an audience of 80,000 in Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. It will continue fighting for a place in the Championship of Europe with away games in Israel on November 17 and in Andorra on November 21. Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov and Chukotka Governor Roman Abramovich stopped by the locker room immediately after the game to congratulate the team.
The Russians were given few chances to avenge themselves for their September 12 0:3 loss at Wembley. Bookmakers gave the Russians, with nine of the 11 starting players just beaten by the English, no more than a 30-percent chance. The Russian team had not beaten an opponent on that level for several years, even if two key English players, Ashley Cole and John Terry, were out with injuries. The last time was in Paris on June 5, 1999, when Russia beat world champion France 3:2.
Things went as predicted in the first half. The Russian team tried to attack and the English team confidently defended itself. Only in the 20th minute of the nervous game was Russia able to create any danger, as Andrey Arshavin drove the ball in the necessary direction from Diniyar Bilyaletdinov's penalty line. Defender Rio Ferdinand intercepted it before it reached goalie Paul Robinson, however.
The English scored a masterful goal when Michael Owen took a long forward pass away from Sergey Ignashevich, in spite of the Russian's 11 cm. height advantage. Wayne Rooney slipped past Vasily Berezutsky. It looked as if Rooney was offside, but the judge did not flag him. Thus the first half ended in England's favor.
Russian head coach Guus Hiddink sent Spartak's Dmitry Torbinsky in in place of Vasily Berezutsky in the second half, but he was lost playing defense and England almost scored another point in the 50th minute when Torbinsky failed to cover Liverpool's Steven Gerrard, who, happily, missed 7 m. from the goal. There was another near miss by England six minutes later with Vladimir Gabulov to thank.
Then Hiddink substituted Spartak's Roman Pavlyuchenko for Alexander Kerzhakov and things started looking up. Arshavin began to break free of his guard, Torbinsky began to pass more cleverly, Bilyaletdinov faked and Semshov went on the attack. Konstantin Zyryanov suddenly lost his guard and tried to enter the penalty area from the right. Rooney fouled on him and referee Luis Medina Cantalejo called a penalty, which English manager Steve McClaren later protested. Pavlyuchenko made a goal.
With that, and the cheering of tens of thousands of Russian fans, the Russian team got mean and the English got scared. The Brits were even unable to move the ball out of their penalty area. Alexey Berezutsky drove the ball in from a distance and Robinson deflected it, but not far. Pavlyuchenko reached and made the decisive score.
McClaren began shuffling his players, but it was too late. Rooney tried to make up for his error, but Gabulov stopped him. Pavlyuchenko, Arshavin, Bilyaletdinov, Torbinsky and Yury Zhirkov kept England on the defensive and the game ended with a score of 2:1 in Russia's favor. It was the teams biggest win in eight years.
Moscow police prevented several fights provoked by English fans, who were described by police spokesman Evgeny Gildeev as “upset, offended and showing heightened aggressiveness.” They were roaming downtown Moscow in groups of 30-50 looking for conflict, and finding it several times in the area of New Arbat St. Gildeev said last night that the police were responding with moderation but, if the disturbances continued, they would be met with “harshly, but within the confines of the law.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 18, 2007
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