It's a draw.: Nigeria interrupted the winning and dry streak of the Russian national team

The Russian national team missed out on a 3-3 victory over Nigeria in a friendly match in Nizhny Novgorod. Valery Karpin's team conceded first, then scored three times and led 3-1 15 minutes before the end of the meeting, but lost the advantage. Russia has conceded for the first time in the last five matches and failed to win for the first time in this period.

Russia and Nigeria played without a number of leaders

As usual, Russia plays home matches in regions where stadiums are almost filled to capacity. Our team met with Iran on September 30 in Kazan, and the match with Namibia was played on October 3 in Yekaterinburg. Valery Karpin's team hosted Nigeria on the evening of October 6 in Nizhny Novgorod.

Nigeria came to visit us without a whole group of stars. First of all, the team leader is attacking midfielder Viktor Osimhen, Alexey Batrakov's partner at Galatasaray Istanbul. In addition, Atletico Madrid midfielder Ademola Lukman, Milan midfielder Samuel Chukwuese, Fulham midfielder Alex Iwobi, Udinese goalkeeper Maduka Okoye and Coventry defensive midfielder Frank Onyeka did not go to Nizhny Novgorod.

All six of them played two matches for Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations qualifier at the end of September. And in the middle of last month, when publishing the application for the autumn games, the coaching staff announced that they would involve the leaders only in official meetings, but not in friendly ones.

Russia has also released a number of leaders. In particular, even before the game with Namibia, PSG goalkeeper Matvey Safonov and Monaco midfielder Alexander Golovin left the French championship. However, the latter left due to injury.

At the same time, our other two legionnaires stayed until the very end: Alexey Miranchuk from the American Atlanta United and Alexey Batrakov from the Turkish Galatasaray. Despite the opponent's lack of stars, the match in Nizhny Novgorod attracted more than 40,000 spectators.

The winning streak was interrupted at the end

Lechi Sadulaev has been one of the leaders of Akhmat Grozny for several years and is constantly receiving calls to the national team. The 26-year-old midfielder came out against Iran only at the end of the match, in the 82nd minute.

Against Namibia, he played only the first half, but managed to score the first goal of the match and marked the beginning of the defeat of the African team. Against Nigeria, Sadulaev also entered the field from the first minute. And he played for an hour, being substituted only in the middle of the second half.

During this time, Lechi managed to participate in all three goals of his team. However, the guests opened the account. In the 10th minute, Kelechi Iheanacho shot a low shot into the near corner, but goalkeeper Alexander Maksimenko did not have time to react. Perhaps he was hindered by the presence of one of the defenders on the penalty line.

But already in the 30th minute Sadulaev equalized, and just before the break Matvey Kislyak led his team ahead with his pass. Shortly after the break, in the 54th minute, Lechi launched another effective attack — he scored a pre-goal pass, from which Alexander Sobolev gave the ball to Miranchuk, and Alexei sent it into the visitors' goal.

In the remaining half hour of the match, Russia, alas, was unable to "dry up" the game and end it with a victory. First, Peter Edokpolor reduced the gap in the 78th minute. And already at the very end, in added time, Akor Adams put a point in the match, and at the same time in the winning streak of Karpin's wards — 3:3.