Good start for Russian football team’s new coach

Good start for Russian football team’s new coach[/caption

Russia’s national team has beaten the team of Northern Ireland 2:0 in the starting match of the 2014 World Cup group qualifications. The victory secured a good start for Fabio Capello as Russians’ new coach. This was also the first match the team was led by the new captain Igor Denisov.

The Russians totally dominated for the first hour. The Irish managed to attack only in the 91st minute. The game was not spectacular because the Irish team chose for defensive strategy, Fabio Capello explains.

"It always takes two teams to make the game spectacular. If one of them always plays in defense the second can hardly come up with something interesting. We were a bit tight in the first 15-20 minutes but then played much better."

Although Russians scored two goals, they missed many opportunities to score more. Alexander Kerzhakov alone could have scored five but it seems that he is still on a losing streak. In 30th minute Kerazhakov passed the ball to Victor Fayzulin who scored the first goal. Roman Shirokov scored the second one as penalty 15 minutes before the final whistle.

After the game the players admitted they could have played better but generally they were satisfied with the result. We head from Alexander Kerzhakov.

"Naturally, we always want to make the game more spectacular, to please everyone but sometimes we fail to do this because of skills limitations or because the field quality. But the main thing is the score. I think and I hope that gradually we will be back to full fitness and will show great football."

On September 11, the Russian team is to meet the Israeli team, which is more serious challenge than the team of the Northern Ireland. Last time they played with Israel when Guus Hiddink was the coach and they lost 1:2. Then, only thanks to Croatia, which had defeated Britain, Russia could make it into the 2008 European Cup. But by that time Hiddink had been the coach of the Russian team for 18 months. Fabio Capello has been the coach of the Russian team for only a month. On Tuesday, fans may expect an interesting match.