At the end of the goal: the Russian national team will end the year with matches against Uzbekistan and Venezuela

The Russian national team will end 2026 with matches against two difficult opponents. On November 12, Valery Karpin's team will play in Tashkent with Uzbekistan, which competed at the World Cup for the first time, and five days later they will host Venezuela in Krasnodar. Four years ago, the Russians failed to score a single goal against Uzbekistan. Now the opponent has gained the experience of playing at the World Cup, and the South American team also promises a serious test.

Uzbekistan after the World Cup

The exit meeting with Uzbekistan will be held on November 12. The last time the Russian national team played in Tashkent was in November 2022. Then the match ended in a goalless draw. It was one of the first friendly meetings of the Russians after their suspension from international competitions.

At that time, Valery Karpin's team held field meetings with three national teams from the post-Soviet republics of Central Asia. In September, we managed to beat Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek. And in November, there were goalless draws with Tajikistan in Dushanbe and Uzbekistan in Tashkent. All three teams didn't seem to be top teams, and there was an opinion that we were playing with them because there was no one else.

Now there are no such reservations with Uzbekistan, since this national team is already in a different status — a participant in the last World Cup. The team is ranked 59th in the FIFA rankings. One line higher than Qatar, which is considered one of Russia's strongest rivals during the suspension.

In June 2025, Uzbekistan achieved a historic success — reaching the World Championships in the USA, Canada and Mexico. The national team managed to qualify and become only the third of the post-Soviet countries to participate in the world Championship. Previously, this was achieved only by Russia and Ukraine. Besides them, Latvia and Georgia qualified for the European Championship.

Uzbekistan performed poorly at the World Cup itself, losing all three group stage matches. However, entering the tournament itself was a great achievement. Such players as Eldor Shomurodov, who spent several seasons in the Italian championship and is known to Russian fans for his performances for Rostov, helped to achieve it.

Other notable players include former CSKA midfielder Abbosbek Fayzullayev, as well as ex—Rubin Kazan defender Rustam Ashurmatov, currently playing in Iran. Thanks to such players, Uzbekistan maintains a fairly high level.

— Uzbekistan is not the same opponent that it was four years ago, — Dmitry Bulykin, a former striker of the Russian national team, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Now it's a participant in the World Cup. The status is different. Different experience and level. And it will be hard for Russia to beat them. But it's a good test for our players to see if they're ready.

"Maybe someone will have questions after this interview, too."

Akhmat head coach and former coach of the Russian national team Stanislav Cherchesov — about the transfer window, the start of the RPL and refereeing

What is the danger of the Venezuelan national team

Back in the 1990s and 2000s, Venezuela was considered the weakest team in South America. She traditionally took the last places in the continental selection for the World Championships. However, over time, the situation began to change, and now the Venezuelans are on the 49th line of the FIFA ranking.

For comparison, Russia is currently ranked 35th. Moreover, according to the results of the matches in late September and early October, she was able to outpace Ukraine. And this is without official meetings. And Venezuela is above a number of South American teams. For example, Chile and Peru, with whom Russia played at the end of last year.

Then our team drew at home with Peru (1-1), and lost 0 to the Chileans.:2. Given the complexity of these opponents, it is not difficult to guess how our players will feel in the match against Venezuela.

She has a number of qualified players. In particular, those who compete in the strongest European national championships — Italy, Spain and France. At the same time, they still have to rely on 37-year-old veteran Solomon Rondon, who is known in Russia for playing for Rubin Kazan and Zenit St. Petersburg.

The match with Venezuela will take place on November 17 in Krasnodar. This is the third trip of the national team to this city after February 2022. Two years ago, the Russians won the biggest victory in their history at the local stadium, defeating one of their weakest rivals, Brunei (11:0).

It is worth noting that it was not easy to bring a stronger team to Krasnodar at that time: there were no flights in the city. In the fall of 2025, it was resumed, and in March 2026, Krasnodar hosted the match of the Russian national team with Nicaragua (3:1).

"Our national team has been playing very difficult games with Latin American teams lately, which is worth last year's meetings with Peru and Chile," said Sergey Silkin, a former coach of the Russian youth national team, in a conversation with Izvestia. — And at that time they were almost the weakest teams on the continent. Therefore, it will be difficult with Venezuela. Such teams are very technical, while their players do not disdain to get under the skin of their opponents, sometimes they play rough, they fake a lot. They can injure a player of another team or engage in blatant simulation during skirmishes. It will be a very good test for the Russian national team and its ability to prove itself on the international stage.

The November matches will be the last for our national team in 2026.