Eastern shake-up: the Russian national team won a strong-willed victory in Tashkent

The players of the Russian national team won a strong-willed victory over Uzbekistan. Losing 0:2 by the middle of the second half, Valery Karpin's team managed to turn the tide of the meeting. First, Nikolay Komlichenko scored a double and regained his balance, and then Alexey Miranchuk scored the decisive goal — 3:2. This victory was historic: for the first time, the Russian national team managed to win the match, losing by two goals.

The atmosphere of Tashkent

The match was attended by 9,5 thousand spectators, less than a third of the capacity of the 35,000-seat Pakhtakor stadium. At the same time, the stands behind both gates were initially empty, as if tickets were not sold there at all. The fans concentrated in the central sectors, giving the impression of a full house. Anyway, the atmosphere was very noisy — both teams received strong support.

Pakhtakor itself, which turned 70 in August, was certainly liked by fans of the old-school football architecture of the Soviet period. Such arenas were commonplace in Russia until the massive opening of modern stadiums, including those built for the 2018 World Cup, began in the second half of the 2010s.

Nowadays, at the RPL level, it is almost impossible to imagine an arena with open stands without canopies, a running track around the field and subtribe corridors where the routes of football players intersect with the paths of journalists and ordinary fans. The last such stadium in the Premier League was in Voronezh, but it was closed for reconstruction a couple of years ago.

But in the post-Soviet republics of Central Asia, such arenas are still the main football grounds. Four years ago, Russia played at a similar stadium in Bishkek against Kyrgyzstan (2-1), and now for the second time since 2022 they have met with Uzbekistan in Tashkent. However, unlike the Bishkek arena, the running track at Pakhtakor has already been dismantled.

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Valery Karpin surprised by the choice of the squad before the meeting with Fabio Cannavaro's players

For many fans, this situation reminded them of childhood and youth. A lot of fans came from Russia, but local football fans were especially active. They even guarded our national team at the hotel located across the street from the stadium.

Matvey Safonov and Alexey Batrakov, who became popular outside of Russia due to their performances for French PSG and Turkish Galatasaray, aroused the greatest interest. However, after the final whistle, local stars Eldor Shomurodov and Abbosbek Fayzullayev, who play for the Turkish Istanbul Basaksehir, also received no less attention. Both are well known to Russian fans from their games for Rostov and CSKA Moscow, respectively. In addition, Shomurodov managed to prove himself in Italy, where he defended the colors of Roma and Genoa.

A historic comeback

By the way, Shomurodov's participation in the match was questionable, since due to the birth of a child, he arrived at the location of his national team only two days before the game. Nevertheless, Uzbekistan's head coach Fabio Cannavaro released a 31-year—old striker in the starting lineup, who was able to play against his former coaching staff - the head coach of the Russian national team, Valery Karpin, as well as his assistants Vitaly Kafanov, Jonathan Alba and Luis Martinez worked at Rostov in 2019-2021, when Eldor played there.

Nikolay Komlichenko and Danil Glebov, now players of the Russian national team, also performed with him there. Fayzullaev also came out from the first minutes, crossing paths with former CSKA teammates Danil Krugov, Ivan Oblyakov, Matvey Kislyak and Kirill Glebov.

The hosts quickly took the lead — after a cross into the penalty area, Viktor Melekhin cut the ball into his own net. Before the break, the teams exchanged a couple of dangerous moments, but a new goal appeared only at the beginning of the second half: Behrujon Karimov doubled the advantage of the hosts.

This is not to say that Russia did not have the opportunity to close the gap, but until the 70th minute it seemed that Uzbekistan was confidently leading the way to victory. However, everything turned upside down in less than 10 minutes. In the 70th minute, after the Uzbeks carried the ball into the middle of the field, it was successfully picked up by Kirill Danilov, who made a pass into someone else's penalty area, where, after a miss by one of the defenders, Nikolai Komlichenko immediately hit the opponent's goal.

A minute later Krugovoy could have equalized, but he shot from a sharp angle just past the goal. And already in the 75th minute, after a series of bounces, the ball flew into the home goalkeeper, where the defender and the goalkeeper of Uzbekistan prevented each other from picking it up, as a result of which Komlichenko found himself in front of an empty goal and did not miss.

And four minutes later, after a circular shot and a rebound, Alexey Miranchuk sent the third ball into the net. For the rest of the time, Karpin's team confidently controlled the situation and brought the meeting to victory, which became historic — in the past, our national team had never won if they conceded two goals during the match.

The Russian national team will play its next match on November 17 in Krasnodar against Venezuela. This game will be her last in 2026.