Russia 2-0 New Zealand
Man-of-the-match Fyodor Smolov fired Russia to a Confederations Cup opening win over New Zealand to start a party in Saint Petersburg.
It’s only the third win in eight football games for this young Russian side, but with Vladimir Putin in the stands at this World Cup warm up, a victory here always meant a whole lot. And the match was a major challenge for New Zealand’s 36 year old coach Anthony Hudson and his team, with pre-match betting odds and football betting pundits all pointing to a comfortable home win; and the Russian’s showed their superiority throughout.
The hosts dominated a first half of few chances and when Dmitry Poloz was felled by goalkeeper Stefan Marinovic’s knee, few in the stadium could believe it when the referee waved play on; a clear penalty not given.
The All Whites were under the cosh for much of the first half and could only rely on long diagonal balls up to Leeds United’s Chris Wood for brief respite. But then a dreadful piece of defending on the half hour let Russia in for the opener. New Zealand naively tried to play the ball out of defence, lost possession quickly and Denis Glushakov, with a free run on goal, lobbed the keeper and the ball eventually bounced in off the hapless Michael Boxall.
At 1-0 New Zealand was always in with a chance and Marinovic kept them in the game with a brilliant double save, early in the second half, from a Poloz header and Alexander Erokhin’s follow up.
But it was game over on 68 minutes when Russian League top scorer Fyodor Smolov made it two from close range. As time ran out Tommy Smith had a free header cleared off the line but in the end it was a routine win for the hosts.
And hey, Vladimir Putin is happy, Russia is happy, the tournament is underway and the party has started.
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