A lot, Golovin: two goals from the midfielder decided the outcome of the meeting between Russia and Iran

The Russian national team opened the autumn series of friendly matches in Kazan with a confident victory over one of the strongest teams in Asia. Valery Karpin's team took the initiative from the very first minutes and practically did not allow the opponent to create dangerous moments at their own goal. Alexander Golovin became the main hero of the meeting: the Monaco midfielder scored twice before the break and largely predetermined the final result — 2:0.

Returning home

Kazan could not have been better suited for the match with Iran, which had already played in the capital of Tatarstan in the autumn of 2017 in a test match against ours. Then the Russian national team, led by Stanislav Cherchesov, played a 1-1 draw with the national team of the Islamic Republic. Serdar Azmun scored the goal for the hosts.

He played for eight and a half years in the Russian championship for Rubin Kazan, Rostov and Zenit St. Petersburg. At the beginning of 2022, the striker left for the German Bayer Leverkusen, but the love of fans in our country for him has persisted over the past almost five years. Especially in Kazan, where he became a star, playing for Rubin.

After playing for Bayer and the Italian Roma, Azmun joined Shabab Al-Ahli from the UAE in 2024, where he still plays. In 2026, a number of media outlets claimed that the 31-year-old football player was being persecuted for disloyalty to the state during the war. Allegedly in March, a few weeks after the attack by the United States and Israel, Azmun was among 16 people from whom the authorities are going to confiscate property due to suspicion of supporting the "Zionist regime and the terrorist government of the United States."

Earlier, it was claimed that Serdar was excluded from the national team after he posted a photo on a social network with the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, which was negatively perceived due to relations between Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

As a result, Azmun did not make it to the World Cup, although he was supported by Iranian Vice President Abdulkarim Hosseinzadeh, who offered to return the player, thereby giving a "signal in favor of national unity." But in the end, the head coach of the national team, Amir Galenoi, did not change the initial decision.

At the World Cup, Iran was subjected to severe pressure from the US authorities, who did not issue visas to a number of members of the national team delegation, and also limited the team's stay in their country only on match days and the day before. Iran's base was located in Mexico, but it was scheduled to play all three group stage games in the United States.

As a result, the Persians did not lose a single match — they drew with New Zealand (2:2), Belgium (0:0) and Egypt (1:1), and in the last two games they were closer to victory, but they did not realize several chances. That's exactly what the team lacked to get out of the group. But the head coach retained his post and in the fall returned Azmun to the squad, who now plays in the national team as if nothing had happened, which cast doubt on all the rumors about the football player's problems with the authorities.

In Kazan, Azmun was greeted at the airport by numerous fans, and on the day of the match, when the squads were announced, they applauded him no less than the players of the Russian national team. In total, more than 34 thousand spectators gathered at the stadium.

The composition of the best

This is the third time Iran has played with Ours since their removal in 2022. They first met in Tehran in March 2023. Then the match ended in a draw (1-1). The second time was in Volgograd last fall, when our team won 2-1.

In Kazan, the head coach of the Russians, Valery Karpin, released the strongest practical squad from the first minutes. In particular, our stars from the French championship, PSG goalkeeper Matvey Safonov and Monaco midfielder Alexander Golovin, took the field. There was also the attacking midfielder Alexei Batrakov, who recently left for Turkey. Azmun also came out of Iran from the first minutes. However, he was replaced during the break.

The current long break for the national team's games allows for four matches to be played in one training camp. The RFU agreed on three. Therefore, at the end of last week, our team did not play, unlike Iran, which lost to Uzbekistan (1:3). Perhaps this workload prevented me from performing well in Kazan.

Almost the entire match took place with the overwhelming advantage of Russia. Except that in the 20th minute, Azmun went one-on-one with Safonov, but Igor Diveev knocked the ball out from under him. This led to a counterattack, with which Golovin opened the scoring. 15 minutes later, he doubled the lead with a brilliant free kick. This allowed our team to control the course of the meeting.

In the second half, Russia was closer to its third goal than Iran was to its first, and calmly brought the matter to victory. In the 78th minute, Karpin replaced Sobolev, who had not played in the national team for three years. But he didn't manage to create anything in the attack.

Russia has won and will now play two more matches — on October 3 in Yekaterinburg against Namibia and on October 6 in Nizhny Novgorod against Nigeria.