A bit more than a week until a very important Euro qualifier where we face our fiercest rival in international stage. Home matches against Russia always have a special importance and atmosphere and we have done well in them so far, winning a friendly 2-1 before the WC2002 and drawing 1-1 in WC2006 qualifier in 2005.
Our start to the campaign last year was poor, 0-1 home defeats against Macedonia and Israel (the last one especially dissapointing as we played good) and Russia beat us away 2-0. So no goals scored yet and no points either. This match means a lot, another defeat would be a huge blow.
Russia's manager Guus Hiddink has already announced the team travelling to Estonia:
Keepers: Igor Akinfejev (Moskva CSKA), Vjatšeslav Malafejev (Sankt-Peterburgi Zeniit)
Defenders: Aleksandr Anjukov (Zeniit), Aleksei Berezutski, Sergei Ignaševitš (mõlemad CSKA), Deniss Kolodin (Moskva Dinamo), Roman Šiškin (Moskva Spartak)
Midfielders: Jevgeni Aldonin, Juri Žirkov (CSKA), Dinijar Biljaletdinov (Moskva Lokomotiiv), Vladimir Bõstrov, Jegor Titov, Dmitri Torbinski (Spartak), Igor Denissov (Zeniit), Igor Semšov (Dinamo)
Forwards: Andrei Aršavin (Zeniit), Aleksandr Keržakov (Sevilla), Ivan Saenko (Nürnberg), Jevgeni Savin (Permi Amkar), Dmitri Sõtšjov (Lokomotiiv)
yeah there's lots of defenders out already and one more starter (right back Allas)got injured in that match, it will be difficult to make a well-working and reliable backline now
Also Oper is struggling to get fit for the match and probably won't be 100% and can't play the whole game, that's another huge blow as we're clueless up front without him.
So basically the team we'll have this time is much weaker than in 2002 and 2005, that's clear already.
GKs
Artur KOTENKO (20.08.1981) – Tallinna FC Levadia 14/- (injured)
Mart POOM (03.02.1972) – Arsenal FC (ENG) 110/-
defenders
Teet ALLAS (02.06.1977) – Tallinna FC Flora 71/2 (injured)
Alo BÄRENGRUB (12.02.1984) – Tallinna FC Flora 7/-
Dmitri KRUGLOV (24.05.1984) – Lokomotiv Moskva (RUS) 22/1
Marek LEMSALU (24.11.1972) – Tallinna FC Levadia 84/3
Andrei STEPANOV (16.03.1979) – FC Himki Moskva (RUS) 65/1
Tihhon ŠIŠOV (11.02.1983) – Tallinna FC Levadia 4/-
midfielders
Aleksandr DMITRIJEV (18.02.1982) – Tallinna FC Levadia 16/-
Ragnar KLAVAN (30.10.1985) – Heracles Almelo (NED) 32/1
Liivo LEETMA (20.01.1977) – Tallinna FC TVMK 35/-
Joel LINDPERE (05.10.1981) – Tromsö IL (NOR) 45/4
Taavi RÄHN (16.05.1981) – FC Volõn Lutsk (UKR) 30/-
Andrei SIDORENKOV (12.02.1984) – Tallinna FC Flora 7/-
forwards
Jarmo AHJUPERA (13.04.1984) – Tallinna FC Flora 3/-
Gert KAMS (25.05.1985) – Tallinna FC Flora 2/-
Tarmo KINK (06.10.1985) – Tallinna FC Levadia 5/-
Oliver KONSA (04.03.1985) – Tallinna FC TVMK 2/-
Tarmo NEEMELO (10.02.1982) – GIF Sundsvall (SWE) 15/1
Andres OPER (07.11.1977) – Roda J.C. (NED) 103/32
Ats PURJE (03.08.1985) – Tallinna FC Levadia 2/-
Sergei TEREHHOV (18.04.1975) – Tallinna FC TVMK 91/5
It's honestly a scary looking team on paper, easily the worst that has been called up for a big match for many many years, probably the worst this millenium
another bit of news is that the match will start 20.30 local time and not 18.00 as scheduled earlier
Neemelo is terrible
Oper is useless when he's upfront alone
We could have scored atleast twice, but we haven't got anyone to finish moves
Bystrov loves the grass at Alecoq Arena, he's always crawling around on it
Deserved victory for Russia. We didn't really stand a chance, especially in the 2nd half, although the first half an hour was really good but we lost the plot afterwards. If we had scored at least one of our early chances the game would have been different.
Have to agree with Angerjas. Oper's position is behind the striker and Neemelo is the most useless guy ever to wear the blue shirt (yup, even worse than Zahovaiko).
Well, in the end the result was pretty much as expected. The start was surprisingly good and we had some chances but no luck and no goals. In the middle of the second half it actually looked likely that we might get a 0-0 draw but then the defensive mistakes started to happen...Lemsalu was especially poor today and clearly couldn't keep up with their young attackers...maybe we would have had a chance to save a draw with Piiroja there.
Anyway, all in all that is the realistic level of our NT at the moment...no creativity in the midfield and no sharpness in attack and the defense isn't that faultless either that we could save games by defending alone.
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