Not weak: what are interesting opponents of the national team in the first half of 2025

The Russian national soccer team has decided on its opponents for the coming months. Last week it was officially announced that Valeriy Karpin's men will play Zambia in Moscow in March. And in June they will face Nigeria at home and Belarus away. According to experts, the Russian Football Union (RFU) managed to raise the level of the national team with this lineup of friendlies compared to 2024.

Zambia

All three teams that Russia will play in the first half of 2025 are in the top 100 of the FIFA rankings. This is a significant progress against the background of the national teams that ours played last fall. Vietnam and Brunei were at the end of the second hundred, while Syria was at the bottom of the first. The Syrians are 10 places ahead of Zambia, the weakest of the teams that the RFU has agreed with for the coming months.

The Zambians are 87th in the ranking. A year ago this team failed to make it out of the group at the African Cup of Nations - in the quartet with Congo, Tanzania and Morocco, it did not win a single victory. At the same time in 2012 Zambia won the main trophy of their continent. The main star of this national team is considered to be striker Patson Daka from Leicester City.

The head coach of Zambia since 2022 is Israeli Avraham Grant, known to a wide range of fans for his work in the English Premier League (APL), where he led Chelsea, Portsmouth and West Ham United from 2007 to 2011. It was under his leadership that Chelsea reached the Champions League final for the first time in its history, which was played in May 2008 in Moscow. Then the London club only lost to Manchester United in a penalty shootout (5:6) after a 1-1 draw in regulation and extra time.

The match with Zambia is scheduled to take place in the 20th of March. It is already known for sure that it will be played in Moscow. It has not yet been announced at which stadium, but according to Sport-Express, the RFU is considering VTB Arena as a priority option.

- It is clear that this is far from the opponent we can dream of, but now we need to play with those we can, who have the desire and opportunities to meet with us," Vyacheslav Koloskov, RFU honorary president, shared his opinion with Izvestia. - Zambia is not the worst team in Africa, which is definitely stronger than Brunei and Vietnam. If they are ready to come to us, we should seize the moment and test our strength against them. However, I am not sure that the match will be of great interest to the Moscow audience. There were full stands in the capital when Cameroon and Serbia visited us, but whether people will go to Zambia is a big question. Games with such opponents are better held in regions where people don't often see the national team, so they fill the stadiums in Brunei, as it happened in Krasnodar, or in Cuba and Syria, with whom we played in Volgograd. But apparently the RFU didn't have the opportunity to hold the game somewhere further away from Moscow, or the opponent didn't agree to fly further than the capital. So let's hope that our soccer's governing body has the ability to run such a campaign to attract spectators that we will see full stands.

Nigeria

Nigerians are traditionally the leaders of African soccer. Perhaps only Cameroon and Morocco can argue with them in terms of achievements on the international stage. They were the first in history to achieve a major victory outside the Black Continent - the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. This was repeated only by Cameroon, who won the 2000 Games in Sydney.

Two years ago, Nigeria won silver medals at the last African Cup of Nations. Its striker Ademola Lukman won the Europa League last year with Italian side Atalanta and was voted Africa's best player.

The team also has the Italian champion - 2023 with Napoli Victor Osihmen, this season spent on loan in Turkish Galatasaray, striker sensationally going third in the championship of England "Nottingham Forrest" Taiwo Awoniyi, midfielder Leicester Wilfred Ndidi and many other players playing in the top European championships.

In the FIFA ranking of Nigeria in 2024 Nigeria is on the 44th line. By the way, Russia is now in 32nd place. And now it has got one of the strongest opponents in the last three years. Perhaps, during the period of suspension from international competitions comparable sparring partners were only Iran in March 2023 (1:1), Cameroon in October 2023 (1:0) and Serbia in March 2024 (4:0). The match against Nigeria is scheduled for June 6.

- "It's great that the RFU was able to come to an agreement with such an opponent," said former Russian national team head coach Yuri Semin in a conversation with Izvestia. - Nigeria is traditionally the flagship of African soccer and periodically shows good results at World Cups, and many of its players successfully play in the best European national championships for strong clubs. This game is one of the main games for Russia during its suspension from international tournaments. And it will be a good test of the readiness of our guys in case they will be returned to official competitions in the coming years. In general, the list of opponents for the next few months looks convincing. I just want Zambia and Nigeria to bring their main squads. Then we will be able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the current Russian national team as accurately as possible.

Belarus

Unlike the Russian club and national teams, their Belarusian counterparts have avoided a ban in February 2022. Although the rest of the country's athletes are suspended from international competitions to the same extent as the Russians, players from Belarus play in official tournaments.

Since the summer of 2021, Belarusian clubs in European competitions and the national team in the UEFA Nations League and World and European Championship qualifiers have played their home matches on neutral pitches. Therefore, the friendly with Russia, held last summer in Minsk, was the first international game for Belarus on its territory in three years.

Back then, the Russian Federation defeated Belarus 4-0 at the Dynamo Stadium. A year later, it will again go to its neighbors - the match will be held on June 10. Belarusians are in 98th place in the FIFA ranking. In qualifying for the European Championship - 2024, they took fourth place in their group, missing Romania, Switzerland and Israel and ahead of Kosovo and Andorra. They failed at the start of that tournament - a 0:5 home defeat to Switzerland and minimal defeats to Romania away (1:2) and Israel at home (1:2).

There was also a fiasco in the form of an away draw (0:0) with Andorra - one of the weakest teams in Europe. But in the second half of the selection Belarus managed to improve, in addition to victories over Kosovo and in the return game with Andorra, achieving draws with Switzerland (3:3) and Romania (0:0). In the fall, the team will start qualifying for the World Cup-2026.

- Belarusians have a strong team," former coach of the Russian national team Alexander Tarkhanov told "Izvestia. - It can't be called strong, but it can play a good match. Of course, the main of our rivals for the next few months is Nigeria, but Belarus is a good sparring match.

Recall that Russia has been suspended from international competitions since February 2022. Since the fall of 2022 it has played 16 friendly matches - with Kyrgyzstan (2:1), Tajikistan (0:0), Uzbekistan (0:0), Iran (1:1), Iraq (2:0), Egypt Olympic team for players under 23 years old (1:1; 1:2), Qatar (1:1), Cameroon (1:0), Kenya (2:2), Cuba (8:0), Serbia (4:0), Belarus (4:0), Vietnam (4:0), Brunei (11:0) and Syria (4:0).