Knocked out by Dzyuba: the footballer became the best scorer in the history of the national team

The friendly match of the Russian national football team against Grenada met the expectations of the public regarding Artem Dzyuba's historical record — the striker scored his 31st goal for the national team and broke Alexander Kerzhakov's record for this indicator. Our national team defeated the opponent with a score of 5:0.

Attract viewers

The Russian Football Union (RFU) has done everything possible to use Dzyuba's name and the hype surrounding his unexpected call-up to the national team to attract maximum attention to the far from bright poster in Moscow. Grenada was not the weakest opponent in the history of the Russian Games.

Even after three years of suspension from international competitions, Valery Karpin's team had weaker sparring — last November it defeated Brunei at home with a score of 11:0, winning the biggest victory in its history. That game was played in Krasnodar. Not spoiled by constant visits to their city, the local public came to the stadium en masse — the attendance of the meeting was more than 26 thousand spectators. A year earlier, in Volgograd, the defeat of our Cubs (8-0) was watched live by more than 40 thousand.

In Moscow, it was more difficult to lure the audience to such an opponent. The organizers were rocking the story of Dzyuba with might and main. The day before the match, the RFU organized a bright joint press conference between Artyom and the head coach of the national team, Valery Karpin. Just before the start of the match, Alexander Kerzhakov, the previous author of the record for goals for the Russian national team, made the symbolic first shot at the ball.

Shortly before the match, he walked along the edge and took pictures with Dzyuba, who participated in the warm-up. Kerzhakov scored his last goal for the national team against Belarus in a friendly match (4:2) in June 2015. It was his 30th goal for the national team.

Six years later, he was overtaken by Dzyuba, who converted a penalty in the European Championship match against Denmark (1-4). After that defeat, the national team was eliminated from the Euro, which led to the resignation of head coach Stanislav Cherchesov. It was under him that Artyom became the leader of the national team and its main star at the 2018 home World Cup and in the Euro qualifiers.

Valery Karpin, who replaced Cherchesov, worked with Dzyuba at Spartak in 2009-2013. And then their relationship didn't work out. This is usually attributed to the fact that Artyom was no longer called up to the national team until March 2025. But last week he got on the list. And a day before the match with Grenada, Karpin announced that Dzyuba would lead the team to the game as captain.

Stanislav Cherchesov also came to the match with Grenada, congratulating Dzyuba on the challenge. As a result, the match managed to attract more than 15 thousand spectators. Many of them came in T-shirts with Dzyuba's name on the back and noted that they had come to such a not very bright match because of the potential record of the 36-year-old Akron football player.

A historical moment

Grenada is 10 places higher than Brunei in the FIFA coefficient table. She is in 174th place. If Russia was leading against Brunei by the 10th minute, Grenada resisted. Given the presence of a large number of tall and physically strong players, this team managed to impose a struggle on Russia and prevent Dzyuba from demonstrating his key trump card — playing with his head.

But in the 16th minute, Danil Prutsev managed to open the scoring. And in the 28th minute, a historical record almost took place when, after a discount from Maxim Glushenkov, Dzyuba hit his head at point-blank range. The ball could have crossed the ribbon after bouncing off the Grenada goalkeeper, but the visiting defender knocked it out of the empty net. In the 42nd minute, Arsen Adamov doubled Russia's advantage, and a minute later, what most people were watching this match for happened - Dzyuba took the ball from Alexei Batrakov on the outskirts of the penalty area, where there were no opponents, went forward a little and sent it into the far corner.

When the announcer announced the author of the third goal, the roar of the stands was as if the entire 35,000-seat VTB Arena was filled. After the break, Dzyuba also scored an assist — Daniil Fomin scored from it in the 53rd minute. At the end of the first hour of the game, Zelimkhan Bakayev scored the fifth goal for Russia.

And in the 66th minute, to the applause of the stands, Dzyuba left the field and was replaced by Ivan Sergeev. In the remaining time, our team had a few more chances to score, but the score did not change. At the very end, Turpal-Ali Ibishev, a young defender of Akhmat Grozny, made his debut for the national team.

"Since Artyom scored our team's third goal at the end of the first half, I had no emotions anymore — I was focused on playing before the break without conceding goals,— Russian national team goalkeeper Evgeny Latyshonok told Izvestia. — But, of course, everyone was happy for him that he broke this record. It was the first time I was on the same team with him, and my impressions were only positive. He was a very positive person, he told a lot of interesting stories, and he just left super—positive emotions. He's a good man, and everyone already knew that he was a strong football player. Before the kick—off whistle, he gathered us in a circle and made a speech as captain - the usual parting words before the game. And during the match, he behaved like a leader, turned us on, motivated us. As a result, we had a good result in the form of a crushing victory, and he scored a goal and made an assist, achieving this record.

Russia's next match will be played on March 25 at the same VTB Arena in Moscow. The opponent will be Zambia.