Peru test: what awaits the Russian national team in the first November match

This week, the Russian national football team completes its playing year with two friendly matches against South American national teams. On Wednesday, November 12, Valery Karpin's team will host Peru in St. Petersburg, and three days later they will meet with Chile in Sochi. Read more about the upcoming rivals and the composition of the Russian national team in the Izvestia article.

Rivals

Both of the upcoming opponents unsuccessfully played the last qualifying tournament of the 2026 World Cup, taking the last two places in the South American group. They will miss the upcoming world championships in the USA, Canada and Mexico next summer. At the same time, both teams did not include a number of leading players in their applications for matches with Russia.

For example, the Peruvian team arrived in St. Petersburg without defender Luis Advincula from Boca Juniors in Argentina, striker Gianluca Lapadula from La Spezia in Italy, and main forward Luis Ramos from America de Cali in Colombia. Advincula dropped out due to injury, and Lapadula and Ramos were simply released from the rotation.

Peru is ranked 49th in the current FIFA rankings. At the same time, Russia is on the 30th line. The upcoming opponent is not the strongest for our team during the suspension from official matches. But of all the people we've played against in the last three years, only Iran, Serbia and Nigeria are above the Peruvians.

The last great achievements of Peru were at the junction of the past and present decades. At the end of 2017, the national team of this country made it to the final part of the 2018 World Cup, which was held in Russia. Then she didn't even manage to get out of the group, but the success was the very fact of getting to the championship for the first time since 1982.

In 2019, the Peruvian team reached the final of the Copa America, and two years later finished there in fourth place. Since then, the national team has been seriously updated, and it has become weaker in terms of results. But as a sparring match for Russia, it fits very well.

"Latin American teams are always a serious force, even if it's not Brazil with Argentina or Uruguay with Paraguay," Vyacheslav Koloskov, honorary President of the Russian Football Federation, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — They traditionally have very technical and athletic players who meet the requirements of world football. Even if the national team of Peru has not arrived in the best squad and is not in the best shape, it is useful for our players to test themselves against such a team, especially young ones who have not yet played either in European cups or in official matches of the national teams. And the more experienced guys, who have not participated in such competitions for almost four years, should remember at least at a basic level what awaits them after their return.

South American contingent: how the Russian national team is preparing for the upcoming matches

Valery Karpin's team completes the 2025th games with Peru and Chile

The composition of the national team

The final composition of our team became known last week, but on Monday it became clear that it would be missing two players from Moscow's Lokomotiv — defender Alexander Silyanov and midfielder Dmitry Barinov dropped out due to injuries. As usual, the legionnaires were called up — this time, in addition to the main goalkeeper Matvey Safonov from the French PSG and midfielder Alexei Miranchuk from the American Atlanta United, midfielder Alexander Golovin, who plays in the French championship for Monaco, arrived.

In addition to Safonov and the main goalkeeper of Krasnodar, Stanislav Agkatsev, there are two newcomers in the goalkeeper brigade — Maxim Borisko, the number one of the main sensation of the first round of the Russian championship of Kaliningrad Baltic and Vitaly Gudiev, the main goalkeeper of Tolyatti Akron, who last weekend, together with his team, beat Dynamo Moscow, led by Karpin.

Once again, the main young talents of the RPL are Lokomotiv midfielder Alexey Batrakov, as well as CSKA defender Matvey Lukin, midfielders Matvey Kislyak and Kirill Glebov. Another Baltika player, defender Mingiyan Beveev, has been called up for the second time in a row.

For the first time in a long time, there was no midfielder Danil Glebov in the national team. He was the captain of Rostov for several years when he was led by the current coach of the national team, and since the summer they have been working together at Dynamo. Since 2021, he has almost always been called up by Karpin to the national team, but not so long ago he suffered an injury, due to which he is highly likely not to play before the winter break.

The injuries also prevented the call—up of two more key players of the current national team - Dynamo midfielder Anton Miranchuk and Lokomotiv striker Dmitry Vorobyov. Nikolai Komlichenko, the latter's partner and competitor in the club, will play in the attack, as well as Dynamo players Ivan Sergeev and Konstantin Tyukavin.

"Almost all the strongest players who could be involved at the moment have been called up to the national team," Dmitry Bulykin, a former striker for the Russian national team, told Izvestia. — In Vorobyov's absence, Komlichenko, who was well—known to Karpin from Rostov, began to practice at Loko, and Sergeev and Tyukavin constantly play under the guidance of the head coach of the Dynamo national team and show good performance - Tyukavin, after a serious injury, quickly got in shape and regained his level. There are no special questions about the other lines either. There is a problem with Safonov's playing practice, who has never played for PSG this season, but given the friendly nature of Matvey's matches, it is quite possible to call and check his condition. The main thing is to have the strongest squad on the field and please the fans in both matches.

Rolling stock: which of our players will play against Peru and Chile?

Valery Karpin has decided on the list of players for the upcoming matches

Molodezhka

The Russian youth national team will also have interesting matches in the coming week for players under the age of 21. Ivan Shabarov's team went to Kyrgyzstan, where they will play in a friendly tournament with the local national team, as well as Iran and Bahrain. The first match with the Iranians will be held at 12:00 Moscow time on Wednesday, November 12. The other two will be held on November 15 and 18. The opponents will be represented by players no older than 23 years old.

"It's very good that we have the opportunity to play with strong teams again, to test ourselves at a serious level," Alexander Degtev, goalkeeper of the Russian youth national team, told Izvestia. — This practice helps us a lot. And the upcoming matches are no exception. All three rivals are very worthy and interesting. Let's see what they are like on the field. It won't be easy, but we expect to play good football and win all three matches.

The match between the national teams of Russia and Peru will be held on November 15 in St. Petersburg at the Gazprom Arena. It starts at 20:00. The game against Chile will begin on November 18 at 18:00 at Fisht Stadium in Sochi.