Russia national football team continued their preparations to UEFA Nations League match against Hungary on Saturday the 5th of September. The Russian squad started their workout at Puskas Arena stadium at 12.00 am, followed by a press conference by head coach Stanislav Cherchesov.
- How do you like Puskas Arena? Nikita Simonyan participated in the opening ceremony of this stadium.
- The stadium is amazing and the pitch is excellent. The arena is somewhat reminiscent of the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow. I spoke to Nikita Simonyan yesterday as he wished to join us on our trip to Budapest. However, the current international situation forced him and Aleksandr Mirzoyan to pass on this idea. By the way, we played a match here, at a different stadium though, in early 1990s and won 1-0.
- What are your expectations of the match tomorrow?
- There are no easy matches at national team level. The home side will stand under the Hungary flag and we will stand under the Russia flag so an intense and uncompromising game must be expected. Hungary have just beaten Turkey in an away match. We know that there are certain changes in their squad. I recently spoke to Balazs Dzsudzsak and Nemanja Nikolic. The former is not with the national squad at the moment but the latter is. They are both great guys and football players. I worked with Dzsudzsak in Dynamo Moscow, and with Nikolic in Legia Warsaw. So we expect a fine match ahead. The only disadvantage is that there are going to be no fans in the stands.
- Did you see the goal that Szoboszlai scored in match against Turkey? Are you concerned about the home side’s free kicks?
- We know Szoboszlai very well and not because of the match against Turkey alone. I frequently watch Austrian Bundesliga where he plays. We know and take his strengths into consideration. We need to be careful near our penalty area and remain focused during the entire match.
- According to fans, Hungary national football team has two high-level players aged 19. One of them is Szoboszlai. Are there young players of equal level in Russia?
- There are times when young players emerge in the national team and this happens in every country. Golovin became a key player in our national squad at the age of 20 several years ago. Then there are great players in the U-19 team. So we have no reason to be envious of anybody. We monitor and analyse our own players.
- Based on their recent match against Turkey, what are Hungary’s strengths and weaknesses?
- The squad will learn everything at our theoretical class today. I cannot speak of this here now.
- A question regarding squad rotation. The players have a rather tough schedule now. Are you planning to make any squad rotation?
- We have not had a chance to discuss today’s workout yet. We will have to look at our players’ condition and our medical staff will make their conclusions. We will also take into consideration certain details in respect of the home side’s play. As it is just the start of the season, there is no sense in talking about such difficulties as a tough schedule.
