Euro-2008: Russia defeat Serbia in warm-up game
Published 29 May, 2008, 05:05
Russia have beaten Serbia 2-1 in their warm-up game for the upcoming Euro-2008 championships. The match was played in Germany, where the Russian squad is preparing for the tournament.
After 11 minutes, Pavel Pogrebnyak took a long-range free kick - and the result was pretty spectacular, the ball flying in off the post. Even the goalscorer himself seemed surprised by the goal.
Russia held their lead for over 30 minutes. But five minutes before half-time a terrible misunderstanding between Bilyaletdinov and Semshov near their own box left Igor Akinfeev at the mercy of Marco Pantelic, who levelled the score to make it 1-1 at the break.
However, once the second half kicked off Russia wasted little time in re-establishing their lead. Only two minutes in, Denis Kolodin struck an excellent long ball to Dmitry Sychev, who crossed into the box for Roman Pavlyuchenko to slot the ball home, making it 2-1 to Russia, which is how the game finished.
Earlier, on Tuesday, Russia’s football coach Guus Hiddink had named the 23-man squad for next month's Euro 2008 championships in Austria and Switzerland. Russia is preparing for the European Championship in Germany’s Rottah-Eggen. The team has been training hard, with Guus Hiddink pushing his players to the limit.
To see Russia’s Euro-2008 squad, please follow link.
Russia will play one other match before Euro-2008 – against Lithuania.
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