At the final stage of preparation for the final stage of the European Football Championship, the coaches of the Russian national team have planned three friendly games. The first of them - with the Uruguayan team - took place in Moscow, and the meeting with the Lithuanian national team was the second in this series. It was held on May 29 in the Swiss city of Nyon, in a small stadium located next to the UEFA headquarters.
On this day, one of the leaders of the Russian national team, Andrei Arshavin, turned 31. Before the game, the attacking midfielder entered the field for fifteen minutes to lie on the grass. This pre-match event was most remembered by the spectators gathering in the stands. And the game began not in a relaxed way - in the first four minutes, the opponents created scoring chances three times. First, the Lithuanian defender unsuccessfully interrupted the passage of Arshavin, sending the ball into the crossbar of his own goal. Then Chesnauskis struck powerfully at the goal of the Russians, but also hit only the frame, and then our defenders made a mistake, and Igor Akinfeev with great difficulty parried the blow of the Lithuanian Shyarnas. In addition to Igor, left-back Dmitry Kombarov and forward Alexander Kerzhakov appeared in the starting lineup, there were no other changes compared to the previous match.
In the first quarter of the game, the teams created several more opportunities to open an account, and without achieving a result, they began to violate the rules in a power struggle much more often. There were no more dangerous moments before the break. Dick Advocaat released four new players for the second half - Zhirkov, Kokorin, Pavlyuchenko and Dzagoev, who replaced Kombarov, Izmailov, Kerzhakov and Zyryanov. The appearance of the right attacking midfielder Dzagoev instead of the defensive midfielder Zyryanov looked unusual. However, all these rearrangements did not bring results, and the Lithuanians Sziarnas and Radavičius again managed to create a couple of dangerous moments, missing a little into the goal frame. Active Sziarnas had one more opportunity to finish off the ball into the goal after our goalkeeper let it out of his hands after being hit by the same Radavičius. In the 72nd minute, Igor Semshov entered the field instead of the injured Roman Shirokov.
The game ended without any goals scored, leaving the fans of our team and specialists dissatisfied with the quality of the players' actions. This is especially true of the defensive lines - they allowed too much of the opponent in this match. Of the pluses, perhaps only the active actions of Alan Dzagoev can be noted, which, however, did not affect the scoreboard in any way. However, it should not be forgotten that this was only one of the training matches of the preparatory stage.
