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

During the next break, when club football goes on a two-week break, our national team will hold two friendly meetings, this time in rivals Chile and Peru. Traditionally, on the eve of the games, an open training session was held at the Novogorsk training center, followed by briefings with the participation of team representatives. About what surprises Valery Karpin prepared in the final application and who will miss the collection, see the Izvestia article.

Without Mostovoy and Zakharyan

Immediately following the results of the 15th round of the Russian Premier League, which ended on Sunday, it became clear that two Lokomotiv players, Dmitry Barinov and Alexander Silyanov, would not be able to help the national team. Both were injured in the match against Orenburg. Like Nikolay Komlichenko, but the forward of the "railwaymen" still arrived at the location of the national team.

— Barinov did not come to the location of the national team. He won't play. Siljanov was given an additional examination, he is not our assistant in two games. Safonov will fly directly to St. Petersburg. Komlichenko, Chernikov, Sadulaev, Litvinov have micro—injuries - they gave a short pause,— Karpin noted.

Perhaps the main surprise of the final bid was the absence of Zenit midfielder Andrei Mostovoy. The 28-year-old Russian had a great time in October and early November, scoring goals against Sochi, Dynamo and Lokomotiv in the RPL. Perhaps Valery Karpin's decision was influenced by the recent unpleasant story of the attempted abduction of a blue-white-blue player, but the fact remains that Mostovoy has already missed the second training camp in a row.

Arsen Zakharyan was also not among the thirty players called up by Karpin. According to the agent of the Real Sociedad midfielder Gennady Golubin, he was ready during the October training camp, but then he also did not go to the national team. Now Zakharyan's absence from the application for the games with Peru and Chile has caused surprise among the representatives of the Spanish club. The San Sebastians' press attache said: "He's in the squad and ready to play. We haven't talked about Arsen with the Russian national team. A question for Karpin — he is the head coach of the team. There is nothing we can do about this decision."

However, Valery Georgievich's decision looks like the perfect balance for all parties: Zakharyan will spend two weeks getting in shape after his injury and being in front of Sociedad head coach Sergio Francisco, while the national team will receive another player who is in full functional readiness. It seems that absolutely everyone will win here.

There were exactly half of the changes in the goalkeeper group. Of the four goalkeepers from the last training camp, two remained in the team — Matvey Safonov from PSG and Stanislav Agkatsev from Krasnodar. Instead of Alexander Maksimenko (Spartak) and Denis Adamov (Zenit), new faces have appeared in the national team — Maxim Borisko, representative of Baltika, and Vitaly Gudiev, goalkeeper of Akron.

"Both Maxim and Vitaly have already been included in the extended Russian national team, and now it's time for them to be called up to the national team," explained Russian goalkeeper coach Vitaly Kafanov to Izvestia. — Gudiev and Borisko have shown that goalkeepers are able to play a key role and influence the result — to achieve victory even in those meetings where the opponent looked preferable.

But there is still no consensus on the four goalkeepers called up. For example, Andrey Arshavin was surprised by the absence of Zenit's main goalkeeper.

"I would say that Adamov is missing. The goalkeeper has taken the main place in Zenit, he has been playing without mistakes this season. He should take Gudiyev's place in this four," Arshavin said on Match TV.

Compared to the last training camp, some experienced players have reappeared. In particular, Alexander Golovin, who finally healed an injury to the back of his thigh, and Konstantin Tyukavin, who, after returning to optimal shape, deserved a challenge from Karpin.

Latin American guests

On Wednesday, November 12, our national team will play a match with the Peruvian team. On the eve of the game, Valery Karpin's team will hold a partially open training session, and the meeting itself will take place in St. Petersburg at the Gazprom Arena stadium at 20:00.

The teams have never crossed paths in face-to-face meetings in their history. The Russian national team will return to the Northern Capital after two and a half years — the last match at Gazprom Arena was held in March 2023, when they beat Iraq 2-0.

Three days later, on November 15, a meeting with the national team of Chile is scheduled in Sochi, which will be held at Fisht Stadium. Our team hasn't been seen here for even longer — since October 2018. The only time Russia met with La Roja was in 2017, it was a friendly game on the eve of the FIFA World Cup. We parted in peace — the goal of Chilean Mauricio Isla was answered by Victor Vasin's ball.

At the pre-match briefing with the participation of team representatives, Valery Karpin tried to compare the two upcoming opponents and find trump cards that could play into the hands of his team.

— It's hard to compare before the game. A comparable level of plus or minus. Good, solid teams. It will be difficult with both Peru and Chile. We are playing in a closed stadium in St. Petersburg, it is warm there. We have no advantage in terms of weather. And in Sochi, too, plus 16. That's why we made games there so that they wouldn't come in the cold," Valery Karpin emphasized.

The starting whistle for the last game of the Russian national team in 2025 will sound on November 15 at 18:00.