They gave me a light. Russia caused a complete defeat of the Cuban national team with a score of 8:0 | Football | Sport

The arrival of the Russian national team in Volgograd caused a huge stir in the hero city. Local fans had the opportunity to see the national team in person for the first time. In the summer of 2021, the Volgograd Arena was announced for a friendly match with Malta, but at the last moment the game was moved to Moscow. And now – a game with Cuba, which occupies an extremely low 169th place in the FIFA rankings. 40 thousand football tickets sold out in just a couple of days.

We arrived without shoes, took pictures with Karpin

Cubans in Russia started doing strange things almost immediately. Many football players arrived with shoes that were not quite suitable for playing on a natural field of excellent quality. Boots with plastic spikes were not suitable for such coverage, so the team administrator had to urgently look for football boots with iron spikes in the city. It seems to have worked.

The Cubans continued to entertain immediately before the game. It’s been a while since we’ve seen coaches take pictures with each other, posing specifically for photographers. Obviously the guest’s mentor Yunielis Castillo took the initiative himself.

The start of the match immediately made it clear that nothing was going to happen for Cuba that evening—the moments came one after another. Headbutt Ivan Oblyakova in the fourth minute and a chance Alexandra Golovina in the fifth it turned out to be just a shooting game, and goals were a matter of time. And they didn’t have to wait long. The same Oblyakov shot into an almost empty goal with a pass from Golovin.

Less than ten minutes had passed before the pair swapped places – this time the army man acted as an assistant, and the “Frenchman” from Monaco scored. Golovin came out to this match with the captain’s armband and fully justified his visit.

The fans clearly liked what was happening on the field, and therefore before the break the stands exploded with delight once again when railway worker Anton Miranchuk scored – 3:0. The game was actually made, especially since the Cuban goalkeeper played extremely poorly in this episode.

Three in the first, five in the second

Statistics after the first half of the meeting made it clear that Russia had a complete advantage in all indicators. But best of all, the shots spoke for themselves – Russia made 18 of them in 45 minutes, hitting the target nine times. Cuba had a very modest 1 (0).

The second half also began with Russian goals. Gave his second assist of the match Fedor Chalov on Alexandra Silyanova “Lokomotiv”. For the defender, this was the first ball in the national team jersey.

Valery Karpin in the second half he began to make numerous substitutions. Even before the game, he warned that he would let absolutely everyone who made it to Volgograd play. And the players who came off the bench also gave a brilliant performance.

In the 65th minute, the Spartak player scored his next goal for the national team Alexander Sobolevand three minutes later his teammate scored the sixth goal against Cuba Danil Prutsev. For him, it was also the first ball in the national team’s jersey – in the third match.

6:0 is a record score in the Russian national team for Valery Karpin. With this score, he will join the Cyprus national team in 2021. What about the record? The statisticians barely had time to think about it when the Krasnodar resident Nikita Krivtsov scored the seventh goal. The first match for the national team – and immediately the first goal! It was painful to watch the Cuban defenders at that moment.

There were still fifteen minutes left before the end of the match and here it was already possible to take aim at the biggest victory in the history of the Russian national team. In 2019, the San Marino team was beaten 9:0.

In the meantime, in the 78th minute the score became 8:0 – the Zenit player kicked the ball into the empty net Andrey Mostovoy. This score was a repetition of the result between the national teams of the USSR and Cuba at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. There were two goals left to score to reach a record ten.

Didn’t reach the record

But we didn’t have time, although we created five scoring chances in ten minutes. And they even managed to miss the penalty kick – Sergei Pinyaev “distinguished himself”. But this is unlikely to upset anyone much except the player himself.

A victory is a victory, but the big question is: what did this game give to the Russian national team? Yes, we frolicked with a team from the second hundred in the FIFA rankings. But did the football players really play there? They even flew to Russia without the necessary shoes, which is a little strange for a professional team. And even Karpin didn’t smile much after the match, he understood everything perfectly.