Advocaat disappointed with Russia’s display

Goal.com – ABU DHABI, Russia coach Dick Advocaat was clearly unsatisfied with the Sbornaya’s second consecutive friendly defeat, this time at the hands of Iran 1-0.

The Dutchman explained it was difficult for the side to pull together with everyone at different stages of readiness at club level.

“It’s obvious that the outcome of the match is unsatisfactory. The team’s play was influenced by the fact that the players are in varying degrees of readiness. Anyway, this match will be a bad memory for Russian football,” Advocaat told Championat.ru.

“It’s not surprising the players are tired, many of them are preparing for the season with their clubs and we held two days of training. In the first-half there were fragments of the game which weren’t bad but in the second we failed to produce any quality football.

“Many players were not fit enough for a whole game and a large number of replacements were required to comply with the needs of Russian teams playing in Europe next week,” the coach explained.

Russian Football Union president Sergei Fursenko commented after the match that it was disappointing to lose but it may not be all bad if the result motivates the team.

“It’s unpleasant to lose and critics of the team will no doubt increase. However, it was just a friendly match and it tested some new connections. Despite the defeat the game was very useful for us, because Iran’s team is very similar to Armenia.

“Maybe it was better to lose, now they will come back better and meaner. You remember how we played against Ireland after losing to Slovakia, we destroyed them,” the RFU chief said.

“In general this was not a tragedy, although I would still like to see football played with greater desire.”