Match №24

The match № 24, round play-off, 1/4 of final

January 25th, 2012, Saint-Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, spectators

Russia – Moldova 2:1 (1:0)

Referee: Kazartsev, Bagdanov, Petrosyan

Russia: Zaytsev, Shlyakov, Knyazev, Checherin (c), Zhestokov, Bayramyan, Vasil'ev, Bibilov, Voynov (Byrnash, 86), Del'kin (Bydanov, 60), Kyz'michev (Makhmudov, 46)

Head coach: Nikolai Pisarev

Moldova: Rusu, Jardan (c), Prodan, Scripchenco, Matey (Leu, 58), Nicologlo, Platica, Zasovitskiy, Antonyuc, Gynsar', Yavorskiy (Dima, 58)

Head coach: Alexandr Kurteyan

Goals: Bayramyan (8), Zhestokov (52), Prodan (66)

Yellow cards: Zasovitskiy (31), Shlyakov (43), Vasil'ev (77), Scripchenco (77), Platica (85), Bibilov (90)

Best players: Bibilov, Jardan

Comments

Head coach of Russia team Nikolai Pisarev:

– Everything turned well to our team. We could control the tempo and handle the ball. We scored two goals. But we also allowed the opponent to create a few scoring moments at the top of our goal box. It's good that we realized more scoring chances then the opponent did. Who scores – wins. By the way my sportsmen experienced a lot of scoring standard positions near our goal box especially at the end of the match. I think that my goalkeeper was late to intercept the ball. Let me check video, probably he might be blocked. At the moment I made up the decision about list of players of the remaining matches. Our objectives were to see the players and win the tournament. Now we rather prefer to win. By the way the main forward is injured. Let's see who will replace him, who will be able to recover for semifinal matches. It is a pity that we are not playing with Iran because we have rare possibility to play with teams from Asia or America. It would be interesting to play with Iran. But we are going to play with Latvia.

Head coach of Lithuania team Alexandr Kurteyan:

– My impressions about the match are totally positive. We have done something and something we just could not do. But the main thing is that my sportsmen did all their best. Before the match we've strictly decided to play a defensive line. But scored goals showed that not all the players followed this rule. So, in the second half we changed our tactics. Before the start of the tournament we wanted to win. Though, at the same time we could understand that it would be quite hard to do. Not all the players from the main list had arrived. In spite of this fact we were ready to go as far as possible.