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SMERTIN COMMENTS ON SATURDAY MATCH
Former captain of the Russian national team Alexey
Smertin commented on Russia's victory over Slovenia in the first leg of
the World Cup play-off tie.
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Alexey Smertin Photo football.ua
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Former captain of the Russian national team Alexey Smertin
commented on Russia's victory over Slovenia in the first leg of the World
Cup play-off tie.
"This match changed my impressions from Slovenian team, as I liked
the way they played against us at Luzhniki", said Smertin to Sport
Express. "To my mind this team is much stronger than the team, which
I played eight years ago. Maybe they have no stars like Zlatko Zahovic
and Milenko Acimovic, but this team is more well-prepared tactically and
team play is their main advantage".
"Both sides made us worry in the opening minutes of the match, since
everybody expected to see different football. I thought that our players
would attack while Slovenians would focus on defence with rare attacks".
"However visitors started the game brightly and created so many corners.
Fortunately, they didn't manage to derive benefit from them. The second
half was absolutely different, as Slovenians were not so active and we
improved our football".
"Closer to the end of the clash our players understood that 2-0 is
a good result and stepped back to their goal. It would be wrong to blame
them for it, because rushing into attack could be dangerous in this situation".
"Our national team played like Rubin, as they scored and concentrated
on defence. Unfortunately this tactics didn't work, while substitutions
surged Slovenia who created two perfect scoring opportunities at the end
of the game and converted one of them into goal".
"Diniyar Bilyaletdinov impressed me most of all in Russian team.
I heard that someone was not glad to see him in the starting eleven, but
he scored two goals and proved that he is high-class footballer".
"Igor Akinfeev was perfect in the goal and defence was reliable.
It was hard to play for Roman Pavlyuchenko, who has little practice in
his club, however he also looked well".
"It was clear that Arshavin would be tied in attack with Pavlyuchenko
or Pogrebnyak, so I don't see anything strange that Hiddink chose Roman,
who didn't let the coach down in decisive matches".
"Bilyaletdinov gained his peak form in Everton and his appearance
in the starting line-up suggested itself."
"Diniyar played well in Lokomotiv and his departure to London really
helped him a lot. The same thing concerns Yuriy Zhirkov even despite he
doesn't play in Chelsea now. Each training session in England makes you
feel more and more self-confident".
"Most probably we will watch different football in Maribor on Wednesday.
Slovenia will definitely rush forward and expose their defence to our
attacks".
Sport
Express Daily, 16 Nov 2009
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