Match №4

The match № 4, group B, first tournament day

RUSSIA – MOLDOVA 3:0 (1:0)

January 24th, 2014, St. Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 2300 spectators

Referees: Sergey Kulikov, Andrey Veretyoshkin, Andrey Runov

Russia: Leonov, Zuev (c), Tsveiba, Kalyashin, Sharipov (Yarmolitsky, 86), Chkhapelia (Zemskov, 76), Mogilevets (Pantsyrev, 83), Bolov (Manzon, 71), Hadartsev (Zubarev, 38), Zakuskin (Priduk, 61), Zuikov

Head coach: Nikolay Pisarev

Moldova: Avram, Modirca, Graur (Tiron, 86), Bogdan, Jardan, Rata, Anton, Carp (c), Zlatan (Ursu, 67), Dima (Spataru, 67), Mirza (Lisa, 83)

Head coach: Alexandr Kurteian

Goals: Bolov (6), Zubarev (51), Mogilevets (66)

Yellow cards: Spataru (89), Anton (89)

Best players: Pavel Mogilevets, Dinu Graur

 

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After match comments

Head coach of the team Russia Nikolay Pisarev:

– It was the first match and players had the excitement for sure. First half wasn't successful for us obviously. We started slowly, lost individual fights, let the opponent make sharp moments. But, in general, I can say that first half was equal and the second was more concentrated.

– Was Pavel Mogilevets chosen the captain of your team, or he was appointed to this position as courtesy to the organizers of the tournament that is held in St. Petersburg?

– He is a leader by his spirit and he is a leader on the pitch. He conducts our playing, organizes attacks. He is a player of lineup of our national team. The fact that he is from St. Petersburg doesn't really matter.

– Your team scored first goal on the 6th minute of the first half and the second on the 9th minute of the second half. Was it the special tactics for fast goal in every half of the game?

– No, there wasn't any tactics for it. It just had happened. But speaking about the strategy of the tournament, it is hard to win the game if you have only 7 substitutions and you lost the first half. In this case, it is a big luck for us that we could score fast goals.

– You start the tournament with the victory, though usually, in previous years, you showed not so good result at start. Was it your opponent today who let you play like this?

– You are right, previous tournaments we started worse, with the draws. Today we have the victory and 3 scored goals at once. I can't say that we have planned it. We gathered 4 days ago and it is not our best physical conditions now. We can't even speak about team work and coordination. The individual skills played the main role today. We didn't have a special strategy as we usually do on important tournaments: to qualify from the group and then improve playing from match to match.

Head coach of the team Moldova Alexandr Kurteian:

– I've got nothing to add to Nikolay's words concerning the game. While we still had some little forces we performed well enough. But our little forces passed away in the second half and our feet were becoming weaker and weaker. We couldn't catch up for the Russian guys, they were stronger and faster. But there's no trouble, we have our tasks to accomplish. So I believe we looked good today, considering the opponent.

– What's happening to your players when performing scoring kicks? When the first goal was scored it was the failed kick in the goal area which led to the counter attack of Russians. Later your players also failed to make accurate kicks in quite sharp situations.

– Had all the kicks been managed, the score would have been 10:10. It is football, it is game, a kick is not always carried out. This is for the first; and for the second, the Russians scored a beautiful early goal. They made such a quick counter attack that none of our player could oppose them. And at that we planned a group of players to stop counter attacks and a group to be responsible for defense in counter attacks. None of them could cope. And for the kicks... Team Russia also failed some kicks. But they have scored. And I would note the quality of the goals: the first, and the second... And the third as well.