Mali level: what will the Russian national team show in the second March match

Russian national team players will play their second friendly match in 2026. Having defeated Nicaragua in Krasnodar (3:1), Valery Karpin's team will host the national team of Mali in St. Petersburg. Formally, this is one of the strongest African teams, which could be an excellent sparring partner for the Russians. However, she brought a non-core team, so it will be more difficult to check the current level of our team against her background.

The opponent

In the FIFA ranking, Mali is ranked 54th. This makes it one of Russia's strongest rivals in the four years of its current suspension from official tournaments, comparable to teams such as Iran, Cameroon, Chile, Peru, Jordan, Serbia and Qatar. However, a little less than a week before the game, it became known that several leading players of the national team of Mali would not come to St. Petersburg at once.

Defensive midfielder Yves Bissouma plays for London's Tottenham Hotspur. Midfielders Mamadou Sangare and Amadou Aidara, as part of Lance, are fighting with PSG for victory in the French championship this spring. Another midfield player, Lassana Coulibaly, plays in the Italian championship for Lecce. Midfielder Nene Dorgeles is fighting for victory in the Turkish Championship with Istanbul Fenerbahce. He is opposed by striker El Bilal Toure from Istanbul Besiktas. All these and several other Malian football players did not come to the game with Russia. As explained by the head coach of the Mali national team, Tom Saintfitte, the players "were not available for a number of reasons." The main backbone of the team in the match in the Northern capital will be young people.

Anyway, the match still needs to be played, because winning it will add points to the FIFA ranking, where it is very important to maintain the highest possible place so that after the draw you have a chance of a more successful draw in the qualifying tournaments of the world and European championships. So far, Russia is in 36th place, having not dropped much in the ranking compared to February 2022, when it was suspended.

"Of course, I would like to have higher—level opponents, but that's what it is," Anatoly Byshovets, the former head coach of the Russian national team, told Izvestia. — The coaching staff of the national team still needs to gather its players, check contacts, involve young people and create at least some kind of base by the time they return to official competitions. If this is not done, even if there is a shortage of high-level opponents, then the national team will not be ready at all by the time they return.

Spring starts: the Russian national team will test itself in Nicaragua and Mali

Valery Karpin's team will play the first friendly matches of 2026

Russia

On March 27, in Krasnodar, our team defeated Nicaragua with some difficulty. It seemed that the 131st-ranked FIFA team would be a weak opponent, like Brunei (11:0), Cuba (8:0) and Grenada (5:0).

But in the end, Nicaragua put up a decent resistance. Although the Russians scored first. Lechi Sadulaev opened the scoring in the 3rd minute. Very quickly, the guests equalized the score. At the break, the teams almost left with an equal score, but at the end of the first half, our team earned a penalty, converted by Konstantin Tyukavin. At the beginning of the second half, a player was removed from Nicaragua. But even outnumbered, the team tried to resist, only allowing Russia to score shortly before the final whistle — Alexander Golovin scored.

"The opponent had a good level,— Russian national team forward Dmitry Vorobyov told Izvestia. — The players of Nicaragua are great. Especially considering that we were outnumbered for almost half of the game. They tried to play low, combine them.

In that match, two players made their debuts for the Russian national team. These are Maxim Petrov, a midfielder from Kaliningrad Baltic, and Georgy Melkadze, a striker from Grozny Akhmat.

"The emotions from the debut are very positive — for any player there is always a goal to get into the main team of the country,— Georgy Melkadze said in a conversation with Izvestia. — It's nice that the coaching staff gave me this opportunity. I really hope that this will not be my last appearance on the field for the Russian national team. I will do everything to prove my level and be called up for it again. I will try to help the team in the match against Mali. There is a lot of motivation for this game, no matter what the opponent's lineup will be.

The Russia – Mali match will begin on March 31 at 20:00 Moscow time.