The head coach of the Russian national team, Valery Karpin, expressed satisfaction with the team’s game and attitude to work after the friendly BetBoom match against Zambia.9
Valery Karpin, head coach of the Russian national team:
“Congratulations on the victory! You said that Zambia is close in level to Cameroon. How did your expectations match up, and are you satisfied with the game?”
“There’s no disappointment, of course. What I said before the game was confirmed by the game itself. The fact that Zambia didn’t show their potential is the fault of our football players. We shouldn’t downplay the victory and say that this is a team at the level of Grenada. They have good football players, individually strong. They have problems in defense, which we were able to take advantage of. I’m fully satisfied, happy, and thanked the guys – everything is fine.”
“Was the attack on the flank of Krugovy a prepared move or did it happen situationally?”
“We didn’t say that we need to start attacks from the left and finish from the right. It’s clear that this happened situationally. Osipenko knows how and likes to move the ball forward, maybe it’s connected with this. In the second half, there were more attacks from the right. We have football players of a good level who understand what needs to be done in a specific situation.”
“We saw two lineups, the first against Grenada, the second against Zambia. Which one is closer to the main lineup?”
“I think both lineups are equally close and far from the main lineup. Absolutely different, only Glushenkov played in both matches. If these were official matches, the lineup would have been different for both.”
“Why didn’t Staver play in the previous matches?”
“Yevgeny was not planned for the first game, and for the second, he could have come out, but substitutions were needed for field players.”
“The Russian national team is currently on a record-breaking streak in world football, with 44:0. Do you think about this?”
“This is not an indicator at all! On paper, it looks nice if you don’t go into details and don’t look at who we played against. Records and streaks are more for journalists and fans. What makes me happy is not this, but the attitude of the guys to work – starting from the training process, ending with the execution of the installation and attitude to the game. This delights me a thousand times more than such records.”
“Why did Glushenkov come out in both matches?”
“Firstly, he only played 60 minutes against Grenada. He hasn’t trained with us for a long time, and I liked how he played in the first match. Perhaps he made some wrong decisions because he really wanted to make a pass to Dzyuba, but I liked his attitude. Sometimes this is put as a minus for him, but in the national team, everything turned into a plus. In terms of desire, he had a good game against Grenada, and today he confirmed it. Plus, Sadulaev and Bakaev can’t eat properly these days, so we decided not to give them extra stress to avoid injuries.”
The friendly BetBoom match between the Russian and Zambian national teams took place on March 25 in Moscow at the Dynamo Stadium named after Lev Yashin. The meeting ended with a 5-0 victory for the Russian team. This game completed the national team’s March training camp.
