Russia’s nightmarish start to Euro 2012 qualification went into overdrive as they succumbed 1-0 to Slovakia at Lokomotiv Stadion in Moscow on Tuesday evening.

For Russia, the loss is a painful reminder of their absence in this past summers World Cup and further highlights a series of problems that have infiltrated the side after the grand success of the Euro 2008. While hopes were the modest victory over Andorra was merely opening night stage fright, finishing was once again off and the Slovakians’ made them pay dearly.

Coming off their victory last Friday over Andorra, Russian manager Dick Advocaat made two changes to his starting eleven, with Yuri Zhirkov returning from suspension and Alan Dzagoev rewarded with his superb play in the opener, while Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and Vladimir Bystrov took their place on the bench. To the surprise of no one the former Saturn Moskovskaya Oblast, now in charge of Slovakia, Vladimír Weiss deployed a compact unit that would absorb pressure, be prepared to launch on the counter and capitalize on the slightest error. Coming off their hard fought victory over Macedonia, the Slovakian manager made three changes to his line-up with Radoslav Zabavník, Miroslav Karhan and Juraj Kucka coming in for Peter Pekarík, Marek Sapara and his son, Vladimír Weiss.

The contested started with the Russian side showing intent early, firing long-range efforts to test goalkeeper Ján Mucha. Yet the point was being made the final third would prove to a trying test for Russia because rarely did the Slovak’s allow high probably sight lines in the early stages. Despite overriding control of the run of play, Russia fell behind three minutes shy of the half-hour due to goalkeeping error by Igor Akinfeev. Via a routine clearance intended presumably for Vasili Berezutski, twenty year-old Miroslav Stoch latched onto the ball on the left and deftly sent the ball past the outstretched arms of the CSKA Moscow keeper for the shocking 1-0 lead. The attacking trident of Alan Dzagoev, Andrey Arshavin and Pavel Pogrebnyak immediately pushed forward, with generally good opportunities presented but with each chance, the final stroke was lacking, including a miss by the close range miss by the latter shy of the break.

At the re-start, Russia showed good attacking venom but equally the Slovak’s digging in with the three points in sight. Martin Škrtel, now of Liverpool, reminded his old Zenit Saint Petersburg manager of his cagey defending efforts with a series of key clearances and overall leadership as Slovakia showed no give. Five minutes into the new have Belgian referee Frank de Bleeckere disallowed a Konstantin Zyryanov as offside as Russia continued to hunt for the leveller. Just past the Vladimir Bystrov for Igor Semshov but the mercurial attacker was having little fortune against the well-disciplined visitors. In the final twenty minutes’ it was clear Slovakia defending was positioned well behind the ball in letter perfect defending and shape as Russia was continuously left with no openings in the final third. At the seventy-first minute, Roman Pavlyuchenko entered for Pavel Pogrebnyak with Diniyar Bilyaletdinov ten minutes later for Sergei Ignashevich as Russia continued to hunt for an opener. In the latter stages, Ján Mucha made an electrifying stop by diving to his left to stop Alan Dzagoev’s free-kick, giving Vladimír Weiss’s Slovakian side the all-important three points via a 1-0 victory in their visit to Cherkizovo.

Prepared by J. Davies
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