The question for the national team is: what awaits Russia in the upcoming friendly matches

The Russian national football team has begun full preparations for the next two friendly matches. In early September, Valery Karpin's team will face Jordan at home and Qatar away. Our team should include all the strongest players at the moment, including Matvey Safonov, Alexander Golovin and Alexey Miranchuk, who are playing abroad.

Composition

It is not the first time that Russian foreign players who have been called up for the upcoming matches have joined the national team. But in September, there was a rare case in recent years when French PSG goalkeeper Matvey Safonov, Monaco midfielder Alexander Golovin and American Atlanta United midfielder Alexei Miranchuk will be in the national team at the same time.

As for representatives of Russian clubs, it is worth highlighting the challenge of goalkeeper Denis Adamov, who only in August won a place in the main squad of Zenit St. Petersburg from Evgeny Latyshon, who has often found himself in the ranks of the national team over the past year. Anton Miranchuk, who transferred from Swiss Sion to Dynamo Moscow, has also been called up, although he played only three incomplete matches in the Russian league and Cup this season, and before that there was a month without playing practice in Switzerland.

In addition, it is worth paying attention to the absence in the final list of striker Nikolay Komlichenko, who has been constantly called up to the national team in recent years. He was a key player for Karpin at Rostov for several years when he worked there, and regularly joined his national team. In February, Karpin left the Donskoy club and got a job at Dynamo in the summer. And Komlichenko moved to Moscow's Lokomotiv in June, where he still does not always get into the main squad and loses the competition in attack to Dmitry Vorobyov, who just got into the national team for the upcoming games.

Also striking are the challenges of defender Maxim Osipenko and midfielder Danil Glebov, who work with Karpin at Dynamo and are well known to him from Rostov. Defender Yuri Gorshkov and midfielder Maxim Glushenkov, who have only recently become frequent players at Zenit, also received a call. The newcomers to the current squad are young representatives of CSKA Moscow — defender Matvey Lukin and midfielder Kirill Glebov.

— I think Karpin as a whole called out those who are now either well known to him, or last summer showed the most stable high level, — Dmitry Bulykin, a former striker of the Russian national team, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Given that the nearest rivals will be of a fairly good level, it is especially important for the coaching staff to check the most optimal game bundles at the moment and prepare them for the near future.

Coach

It is worth noting that the upcoming matches will be the first for Valery Karpin at the head of the national team in a situation where he combines his position with work at Dynamo Moscow. The 56-year-old specialist took over the Russian national team in the summer of 2021. Then he became its head on the terms of combining with work at Rostov. But after two defeats in the national championship, Valery Georgievich left the Donskoy club.

He was the released head coach of the national team until March 2022. After the suspension of our national team from official international competitions, Karpin was allowed to combine work in the national team and the club again, and he returned to Rostov. At the end of February 2025, he left Rostov, stating the need to focus on the national team. But in June he became the head of Dynamo, with whom he unsuccessfully started the season, being in ninth place in the Russian championship after seven rounds.

— I don't think that combining with Dynamo will be a problem for Karpin and the national team, — Andrey Chervichenko, the former owner of Spartak Moscow, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — It's still a different story than with Rostov, where after February 2022, due to the closure of flights, Valery Georgievich and the team had to travel a lot by train and bus to and from away matches. No wonder it's been exhausting for three years. At Dynamo, he works mainly in Moscow, and has more time not only to work with the club, but also to watch matches from other potential teams. Given that Russia has only one away match this fall, in Qatar, and the other five in our country, two of them in Moscow, Karpin should have no problems coping with two jobs.

Rivals

Jordan's national team is going through the best period in its history. In early summer, she made it to the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the USA, Canada and Mexico. This team has never made it to the final tournament of the world championship before. And in January 2024, she reached the final of the Asian Cup for the first time, where she lost with a minimum score to the host of the tournament Qatar (1:2).

Jordan is ranked 64th in the current FIFA rankings. Russia is on the 35th line. In turn, Qatar, with whom we will play away on September 8, ranks 53rd. This opponent has won the last two Asian Cups and has long been considered one of the strongest on its continent.

For the first time in a long time, Russia will play twice in a row against opponents of this level. Last fall, due to the busy schedule of most of the national teams from Asia, Africa and South America in the official matches of their qualifying zones for the World Cup, few people could play a friendly match with us.

Therefore, the RFU could arrange a meeting with very weak opponents like Vietnam (4-0), Brunei (11:0) and Syria (4-0). In November 2022, Russia faced Grenada (5-0) and Zambia (5-0). But already in June, in addition to the game with Belarus (4:1), Russia also met at home with Nigeria (1:1), one of its strongest sparring matches after being suspended from international competitions. Now, at the beginning of August, we managed to reach an agreement with six rivals for the entire autumn. In addition to Jordan and Qatar, these will be Iran, Bolivia, Peru and Chile.

"It's great that in such difficult conditions, the RFU is able to select high—quality opponents for the national team," Boris Ignatiev, the former head coach of the Russian national team, told Izvestia. — Only against the background of more or less strong sparring can you see how ready we are now. Yes, in case of successful matches, we cannot guarantee that we will immediately start showing good results if we are returned to official international competitions tomorrow. But the more Russia plays friendly matches, especially with teams at the level of Jordan and Qatar, rather than Brunei and Grenada, the more likely it is to adapt to a high competitive level fairly quickly when we are allowed there.

The match with Jordan will take place on September 4 in Moscow at the Lukoil Arena, Spartak's home stadium in Tushino. The game with Qatar will be played away on September 7. The Russian youth national team will also play two friendly matches with Saudi Arabia in the coming week. The games will be held on September 5 and 8 in Khimki at the Rodina Stadium.