The technical staff of the Russian national football team, led by Valery Karpin, has published the final list of players called up for the national team’s friendly matches to be held at the end of March.
The country’s main team will meet the Serbian national team on March 21, and the Paraguay team on the 25th. Both matches will take place at the Lev Yashin VTB Arena in Moscow. The final participation of the Russian national team consisted of 28 players.
Goalkeepers: Matvey Safonov (Krasnodar), Andrey Lunev (Karabakh), Alexander Maksimenko (Spartak).
Defenders: Sergey Volkov (Krasnodar), Arsen Adamov (Orenburg), Daniil Khlusevich (Spartak), Igor Diveev (CSKA), Maxim Osipenko (Rostov), Alexander Silyanov, Evgeny Morozov (both Lokomotiv), Evgeny Kharin (“ Akhmat”), Yuri Gorshkov (“Wings of the Soviets”).
Midfielders: Daler Kuzyaev (Le Havre), Dmitry Barinov, Anton Miranchuk, Sergey Pinyaev (all Lokomotiv), Danil Glebov (Rostov), Alexander Chernikov (Krasnodar), Danil Prutsev, Anton Zinkovsky (both Spartak”), Ivan Oblyakov (CSKA), Alexander Golovin (Monaco), Andrey Mostovoy (Zenit), Alexey Miranchuk (Atalanta), Arsen Zakharyan (Real Sociedad).
Forward: Fedor Chalov (CSKA), Ivan Sergeev (Zenit), Konstantin Tyukavin (Dynamo).
The final list of called-up players did not include the ten who were previously included in the expanded squad: Lokomotiv goalkeeper Ilya Lantratov, defenders Vyacheslav Karavaev (Zenit), Dmitry Chistyakov (Sochi), Alexander Soldatenkov (Krylia Sovetov) and Dmitry Skopintsev (Dynamo), Loko midfielder players Maxim Glushenkov and Artem Karpukas, Krasnodar midfielder Nikita Krivtsov, Dynamo midfielder Daniil Fomin and Spartak forward Alexander Sobolev.
important collection
The March training camp is especially important for the national team because they have not had rivals at this level for a very long time. Since Russia’s suspension from international football competitions in March 2022, Valery Karpin’s team has played mostly against Asian and African teams.
In the fall of 2022, he managed to meet with Kyrgyzstan (2:1), Tajikistan (0:0) and Uzbekistan (0:0). In March the following year, games were played with teams from Iran (1:1) and Iraq (2:0).
In September 2023, two matches took place with the Egyptian Olympic team (U-23), in which Karpin’s team, playing as a youth team, drew (1:1) and lost (1:2). Then there was a draw (1:1) with top-tier teams with Qatar, and in October, perhaps the most high-profile match currently during the suspension period took place against Cameroon. Karpin’s team won the match thanks to Fedor Chalov’s single accurate shot in the 40th minute.
Until the end of last year, there was a 2:2 draw with Kenya at the Turkish hotel stadium and an 8:0 victory against the Cuban national team in Volgograd. Since his shoes were not suitable for the natural grass of the Volgograd arena, he bought boots in a sports store.
Serbia and Paraguay are opponents of a completely different caliber. We are talking about one of the strong European teams and regular participants in the world championships from South America, where all teams have at least good quality.
RPL rivals
The squad of the Serbian national team, which will come to Moscow, is already known. The opposing team’s head coach, Dragan Stojkovic, called up several players from RPL for the match against Russia: Zenit’s Strahinja Erakovic, Milan Gajic and CSKA’s Sasa Zdelar. However, Spartak defender Srdjan Babic, who was on the extended list, was not included in the final application.
Also included are Sergei Milinkovic-Savic and Aleksandar Mitrovic (both Al-Hilal), Filip Kostic and Dusan Vlahovic (both Juventus), Luka Jovic (Milan), Dusan Tadic (Fenerbahçe), Andrija Zivkovic (PAOK) and Nikola Milenkovic. stars (Fiorentina).