The end of the series: for the first time in a year and a half, Russia found itself without a victory

Russian national football team players have interrupted their long winning streak in friendly matches. On Friday evening, Valery Karpin's team played a 1-1 draw with Nigeria in Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium. For the first time since October 2023, our team failed to win. Moreover, since that moment, the Russians have not conceded goals in their own goal for eight games.

As expected, the match attendance was quite high for the capital. The meeting was attended by more than 46 thousand spectators. There were many guests from Nigeria in the stands, both local African residents of Moscow and those who had come from their own country specifically for the game.

Some of them chanted "Russia! Russia!" and raised banners with a portrait of Vladimir Putin, demonstrating maximum sympathy for the Russians. Before the starting whistle, a minute of silence was held at the stadium in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack in the Bryansk region.

The main goalkeeper of our team in this match turned out to be Matvey Safonov, who won four trophies with PSG last club season — the championship, the Cup and the French Super Cup, as well as the Champions League. And although he played the decisive matches in reserve, during these tournaments he more than once replaced the star Italian Gianluigi Donnarumma.

During the presentation of the Russian team at Luzhniki Stadium, Safonov's image with the Champions Cup was displayed on the screens. A year has passed without a day since Matvey last played for our national team. It happened on June 7, 2024 in Minsk against Belarus (4-0). And he has not played in Russia since May 25 of the same year, when he played his last match for Krasnodar before transferring to PSG.

The 26-year-old goalkeeper saved his team in the first half when he hit the ball after a one-on-one shot by Fisaye Dele-Bashir. It was the 40th minute, and 13 minutes before that, the Russians took the lead when, after a shot from the left flank by Danil Krugovoy, Seven Ajayi scored his own goal.

The Nigerians have successfully imposed a power struggle on our team, performing no worse than Russia's other strongest rivals in recent years — Iran and Qatar, with whom we drew 1-1 away in 2023, and Cameroon, which Karpin's team beat 1-0 at home in October 2023.

Following that game with the Cameroonians, the Russians met on a neutral field with Kenya, where they drew (2:2). Since then, Russia has only won without letting anyone through its gates. Cuba (8:0), Serbia (4:0), Belarus (4:0), Vietnam (4:0), Brunei (11:0), Syria (4:0), Grenada (5:0) and Zambia (5:0) were defeated.

Nigeria managed to interrupt this series. For most of the second half, neither she nor Russia created almost anything at the other's goal. But our team scored out of the blue — in the 71st minute they made a mistake in their penalty area between the defenders and the goalkeeper, as a result of which Safonov made an erroneous pass, giving the ball to Toluvalas Arokodara, who equalized the score without any problems.

Immediately, the hosts could have taken the lead again, but Arsen Adamov's shot was deflected by the Nigerian goalkeeper. Dmitry Barinov had two good chances to score twice in the remaining time, but both times he hit higher than the crossbar — first with his head after taking a corner, then with his foot from the corner of the penalty area.

The match ended in a draw. Our team's next game will be held on Tuesday, June 10, in Minsk against Belarus.