For the sixteen best football teams in the old world, the most important stage of preparation for the final of the 2012 European Championship has come - only two weeks are left before it starts. During this period, the Russian team has three friendly games, the first of which - with the national team of Uruguay - took place in Moscow on May 25.
There was nothing unusual in the starting lineup of the Russian team, except for the appearance after a very long break of the right midfielder Marat Izmailov, who plays for the Portuguese Sporting. Dick Advocaat chose Pavel Pogrebnyak from English Fulham from two equal strikers for the first half. Zenit player Vyacheslav Malafeev took the place at the goal - it seems that our Dutch coach considers him the first number of the national team, and not the goalkeeper of CSKA Igor Akinfeev.
For twenty minutes of the first half, none of the teams managed to take control of the game or create at least one real chance to score the opponent's goal. But after a quarter of the time allotted for the meeting, it became clear why the Latin American team is in third place in the FIFA rankings, and our team is in eleventh. The celeste footballers used the pressure in the middle of the field very effectively, thanks to which they began to control the ball for longer. On the 21st minute, the guests could have opened the scoring, but Luis Suarez missed the far corner of the goal. On the 26th Edinson Cavani could not complete a very dangerous pass to our goal, on the 31st, half a meter from the corner of the goal, the ball passed after Alvaro Pereira hit from an average distance, and on the 42nd, Martin Caceres struck his head not accurately enough.
The Russian team began the second half with two changes in the lineup - striker Pogrebnyak was replaced by Zenit player Alexander Kerzhakov, and central defender Alexei Berezutsky from CSKA was replaced by Roman Sharonov from Rubin. The beginning turned out to be rather sad for the fans of our team gathered at the Lokomotiv stadium and watching TV screens. On the 48th minute Luis Suarez beat two of our defenders with two false moves and sent the ball into the near corner of the goal with his left foot. But they did not have to grieve for long - the Russian team immediately went to take revenge on the offender and as a result of a rebound from the Uruguayan football player and a successful pass from Roman Shirokov, Kerzhakov was able to outplay the overseas goalkeeper. This goal was scored in the 49th minute, although the tele-replay showed our striker's offside position. Martin Caceres very emotionally tried to prove this to the Dutch referees, for which he received the only yellow card in this match.
Until the end of the game, the score did not change, although the Russians sent the ball into the goal twice more - the goals scored in the 65th and 72nd minutes were not counted. The Uruguayan footballers created very dangerous moments three times, but Akinfeev was at his best, at the exit he beat Suarez in the 69th minute and took the ball tightly after Forlan hit in the 86th, and Lugano shot a little higher on the 76th than he should have. The Russians had excellent chances twice, Kerzhakov, but in the 71st and 74th minutes he could not deliver the final blow. In the second half of the game, our team looked better than the rival, perhaps thanks to substitutions - during the half, Dmitry Kombarov, Alexander Kokorin and Denis Glushakov appeared on the field.
