Zambia Apocalypse: how Russia defeated the African team

Russian national team players won a friendly match against Zambia. Valery Karpin's team defeated her with a score of 5:0. This is the second major victory of our team this year — last week the Russians defeated Grenada with the same score. The previously disgraced midfielder Maxim Glushenkov, who scored three goals, played a significant role in the success with Zambia.

Special attention

Just like the game with Grenada, the match with Zambia was held in Moscow at the VTB Arena. Taking into account the higher level of the opponent, the attendance turned out to be higher than at the last meeting. More than 21,000 spectators attended the Dynamo Moscow home stadium, which holds about 26,500 spectators. While the game with Grenada was attended by more than 15 thousand.

Initially, it was clear that it would be more difficult to attract fans to not-so-high-profile opponents than in regions where even a lot of spectators came to matches against very weak teams. So in November 2023, in Volgograd, the defeat of Cuba (8-0) was watched live by more than 40 thousand. In November last year, more than 35 thousand people came to the match with Syria (4-0) there. And more than 26 thousand people attended the meeting with Brunei in Krasnodar.

In Moscow, at the same VTB Arena, full stands gathered only for the more famous rivals — Cameroon (1-0) in October 2023 and Serbia (4-0) in March 2024.

— I think we can be satisfied with the attendance of the past matches of the national team, — said Deputy Secretary General of the RFU Erica Surikova. — More than 70% of the stadium's occupancy for both games is a good indicator, taking into account the weather. It can be said that it is not easy to attract spectators to the stands in Moscow for matches against teams at the level of Grenada, as it was possible for the match against Brunei in Krasnodar and the matches against Cuba and Syria in Volgograd. Yes, in the capital of our country, as in any major city, there are many events and a wide range of leisure activities. Nevertheless, we see interest in the games of the Russian national team in Moscow as well — people come to the stadium with their families even in bad weather. But, of course, in the future we will take the national team to the regions again. It's just difficult to say in advance where and for which match. There are a lot of factors that must be taken into account to choose a particular city — the condition of the field, the willingness of local authorities to host the event and ensure security, logistics for both the Russian national team and its rivals.

Many believe that it was possible to increase the attendance of the match with Grenada due to Artyom Dzyuba's first call-up to the national team since 2021. The star striker was one goal away from the record for goals for the national team. As a result, much was built on the anticipation of this historic event. The 36-year-old striker managed to hit the goal of Grenada once and scored for the 31st time for the main team of the country, ahead of Alexander Kerzhakov in this indicator.

— Of course, Artyom is a famous football player, a media person who attracts a lot of attention, — said Erika Surikova. — The amount of information that has appeared around him in the media these days, the way it was discussed, including whether or not he would score a record goal for the Russian national team, of course, influenced the dynamics of ticket sales. Were there any calculations on how Dzyuba's appearance would affect the attendance of the match with Grenada? Probably not, since his call—up to the national team is Valery Georgievich's decision. Obviously, the sporting principle comes first. But when we found out about the decision of the head coach to call Artyom to the national team, we immediately thought that from the point of view of the attention of the press and the public, this would positively affect the interest in the match. Including in terms of the dynamics of ticket sales.

A new debacle

After becoming the top scorer in the history of the Russian national team, Artyom Dzyuba left the national team, as did several other players. He did not stay in Zambia. But there was another person whose call to the March training camp turned out to be unexpected. Maxim Glushenkov was left out of the national team for a long time.

He made his debut for her in September 2022 in a 2-1 match against Kyrgyzstan. Then he entered the field in September 2023 against Qatar (1-1), but after that he was not called up by Karpin, even during the period of extremely productive performances for Lokomotiv Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg. A number of insiders claimed that the matter was in conflict with the head coach of the national team.

In September 2024, an interview with Glushenkov resonated, saying that it was more interesting for him to train with Brazilian legionnaires at Zenit during pauses for national team games than to play for Russia against rivals at the level of Vietnam (just then our team defeated this team 4-0).

Back then, there were active discussions in the media about whether the 25-year-old football player was worthy of a call-up to the national team after such words. But in March, he ended up in it. His entry into the final list was overshadowed by Dzyuba's challenge. But after his departure, Maxim turned out to be the main star of the match with Zambia.

Unlike Grenada, which is in 174th place in the FIFA ranking, the African team is currently in 87th place. But this did not save her from the same major defeat. Glushenkov opened the scoring in the 8th minute with a pass from Danil Krugovoy.

At the end of the first half, Ilya Vakhania doubled the advantage of the hosts. Glushenkov scored twice in the first 15 minutes of the second half. After the hat-trick, he was immediately substituted, leaving the field to the applause of the stands. In the 73rd minute, Alexey Batrakov put the final point in the game. Russia has won its eighth major victory in a row. The last time she did not win with a crushing score was in October 2023.

— As always, we won due to discipline, skill and the fact that we took the opponent seriously, — striker of the Russian national team Nikolay Komlichenko shared his opinion with Izvestia. — I think it was a useful two matches, which helped us to test our level and play certain combinations. Now we will prepare further. Personally, I am glad that I returned to the national team after a certain break. I hope that I will get to the next training camp. I will do everything for this, to prove my level at the club. I always go to the national team with great pleasure.

Our next two matches will be played in June — at home with Nigeria and away with Belarus.