MOSCOW, Sep 24, Andrey Senchenko. Former coach of the Russian national team Boris Ignatiev believes that the Russian Football Union (RFU) should remain a member of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and not plan to move to the Asian confederation, despite the sanctions. On Saturday, the Russian team in Bishkek beat the Kyrgyz team in a friendly match (2:1). For the national team, this meeting was the first since November 14, 2021. «It's good that this match took place. The game showed that the Russian team came to life. Now it's up to the small thing — to look for ways that will allow us to keep up with the European echelon and join it when «we will be returned to the international arena. I don't see the prospects of moving to the Asian Football Confederation. The Russian team will simply dissolve and get lost in Asia, lose its attractiveness. I would like Russia to play in Europe, because football is there. And in Asia — a surrogate «, — said Ignatiev. Daniil Utkin, Sergey Borodin, Alexander Kovalenko, Roman Yezhov, Artem Makarchuk, Alexander Silyanov, Daniil Khlusevich and Maxim Glushenkov made their debuts for the national team. «After a long break, the Russian team performed in a new guise. But the game did not show the true the potential of most Russian players. I think that our team has a much higher potential than what we saw in Bishkek. Many players turned out to be psychologically unprepared for the national team match. This was evident against the backdrop of the Kyrgyz team: the opponent was more motivated than our players. The Kyrgyz wanted to show themselves, to look at their level through the prism of the national team, which has a good score among other teams in the world. In the first half, for example, apart from technical equipment and the level of thinking, the Russians had no advantage in anything,» the expert added.
