Friendly match: the Russian national team will meet with one of the leaders of the Asian Confederation

On the evening of October 10, the Russian national football team will play the first friendly match of the October training camp against the Iranian team. It will be one of the strongest opponents for us after three and a half years of suspension from official international matches. Read more about the upcoming meeting in the Izvestia article.

Rating

The Iranian national team currently ranks 21st in the FIFA rankings. Of all the teams of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), it is the second after Japan, which ranks 19th. Russia is ranked 33rd in this ranking. And Iran is one of the few of our rivals over the past three years who are above us in this table.

Historically, this team is one of the most decorated in the AFC. She has won the Asian Cup three times — only Saudi Arabia has the same number and only Japan has more. Iran won all three trophies back in the 1960s and 1970s, but the team has also performed well in recent continental tournaments - two third places in 2019 and 2023.

Iran has consistently qualified for the World Championships — the next World Cup, which will be held in the summer of 2026 in the USA, Canada and Mexico, will be the fourth in a row for Iranians. The team did not come to the next match with Russia in the most optimal composition, as five players of the base were eliminated due to injuries - Serdar Azmun, Rozbesh Cheshmi, Mehdi Gayedi, Majid Hosseini and Ali Golizade.

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Football player of the Russian national team and Rostov Konstantin Kuchaev — about his career, upcoming matches of the national team, captain's armband at the club, Karpin, Kislyak and Glebov

It is especially worth noting the absence of Azmun, the Shabab Al—Ahli striker from the UAE, known for his many years of playing in Russia for Zenit St. Petersburg, Rubin Kazan and Rostov. Of those remaining in the squad, the most high—profile players of the Iranian national team are midfielder Alireza Jahanbakhsh, who won the Dutch championship with Feyenoord Rotterdam two years ago, and striker Mehdi Taremi, who joined Olympiacos in Greece in the summer, and before that played four years in Portuguese Porto (won the national championship in 2022) and one a season in the Italian championship for Inter Milan.

"A physically powerful, well—running, qualified team," Konstantin Kuchaev, midfielder of the Russian national team, assessed the upcoming opponent in a conversation with Izvestia.

The Russian national team, suspended from international competitions after February 2022, has already met with Iran during the ban period. In March 2023, a guest meeting in Tehran ended in a 1-1 draw.:1. Then it was our first opponent after the suspension, close to the top level. He was followed by other top 50 teams like Qatar, Cameroon and Serbia.

"Iran is a very worthy opponent, against which it is interesting to test your level," Boris Ignatiev, the former head coach of the Russian national team, told Izvestia. — The team is well organized, has good performers and is one of the best in its region. It's good that our players have the opportunity to play against such opponents in such difficult times. And it's great that the RFU has found a way to negotiate with teams at a higher level than a year ago, when they had to play Brunei (11:0), Syria (4:0) and Vietnam (4:0). Of course, I would like to play with teams like France or Spain already, but we need to really look at our current capabilities, so it's good that there is Iran, with whom we are waiting for an interesting match.

Location of the event

For the third autumn in a row, Russia is hosting a match in Volgograd. In November 2023, our team defeated Cuba 8-0 at the local stadium in front of 40 thousand spectators (with a capacity of 45.5 thousand). Exactly one year later, we hosted Syria there. Then Valery Karpin's team won 4-0 with an attendance of 35.5 thousand.

Volgograd has long been considered one of the most football cities. The average attendance of the local "Rotor" in recent years has been around 20 thousand spectators per match. And this is despite the fact that the club has consistently played in the first and second leagues in recent decades, having risen to the RPL only for the 2020/21 season. And the maximum excitement is expected for the match with Iran.

In addition to the two meetings in Volgograd at the end of last year, the national team played Brunei in Krasnodar. And in November, she will have meetings with Peru in St. Petersburg and Chile in Sochi. However, we will also play another match in Moscow — next week, on October 14, at the VTB Arena stadium, the Russians will host Bolivia.

Balls are ready: how is the Russian national team preparing for the upcoming matches

Our players and coaches are preparing for difficult confrontations.

—Volgograd is one of the most optimal cities for hosting football events," Vyacheslav Koloskov, Honorary President of the Russian Football Federation, told Izvestia. — Almost at all times, the audience was happy to go to football there. Back when I was in charge of the RFU, we held a qualifying match of the 2004 European Championship against Albania (4-1) at the old stadium there, and people were actively going to the stands. We saw how the new arena filled up at matches with non-status rivals like Cuba and Syria, and we can expect full occupancy in Iran.

The Russian youth national team will also play its matches in the coming days. She will play away against Belarus twice — on October 10 in Mogilev and on October 14 in Minsk.