The Russian national football team on Monday defeated Cuban team, the meeting ended with a score of 8:0. Ivan Oblyakov, Alexander Golovin, Anton Miranchuk, Alexander Silyanov, Alexander Sobolev, Danil Prutsev, Nikita Krivtsov and Andrey Mostovoy scored goals at the Volgograd Arena. For Silyanov, Prutsev and Krivtsov, these goals became their debut in the national team.
The score remained 0:0 until the 22nd minute, but this was not the merit of the guests. There were plenty of chances at Raiko Arozarena's goal, it was just that the Russian team treated them with enviable extravagance. In general, the meeting took place with the overwhelming advantage of the Russian team; the Cubans were not memorable, not only for their moments, not even for their promising approaches to the hosts’ goal. The only thing that stood out among the guests was captain Luis Paradela, he was active, often received the ball, fought with defenders and even entered his name into the score sheet – he received the only yellow card in the match.
In the end, with the score 8:0, substitute goalkeeper Ismel Morgado saved Sergei Pinyaev's shot from the 11-meter mark. As a result, the Russian team was unable to repeat the largest score in its history – in the qualifying tournament for the European Championship 2020, the Russians beat the San Marino team with a score of 9:0. For the Cubans, this is a repetition of the largest defeat in history; the team lost with a similar score to the Swedes at the 1938 World Championships and the USSR team at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.
On the day of the match, a game took place between Russian and Cuban fans. The Russians won with a score of 2:1. Before the meeting, fans had the opportunity to take autographs from ex-national team players Denis Glushakov, Dmitry Sychev, Alexander Samedov, Evgeny Aldonin, Pavel Pogrebnyak. In the stadium bowl, before the starting whistle, Irakli Pirtskhalava sang “Fly”, and People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Vasily Gerello performed the national anthem. After the meeting, singer Aphrodite performed the song “Valera”.
The meeting in Volgograd was attended by 40,706 spectators. This national team game was the most attended home game since November 2019. Then, 53,317 fans gathered at the qualifying game for the European Championship against the Belgians in St. Petersburg.
The match against the Cubans was the 16th for the Russian team under the leadership of Valery Karpin. In Volgograd, the national team played its most successful match under a 54-year-old coach. Before this, Karpin's team had not scored more than six goals. In total, the Russians have nine wins, six draws and one defeat.