Russia's national team came back to beat Uzbekistan 3:2 in Tashkent

Comeback in Tashkent

The Russian national team defeated Uzbekistan 3:2 in a friendly match held at the Pakhtakor stadium in Tashkent. The hosts led 2:0 after an own goal by Russian defender Viktor Melekhin in the 6th minute and a goal by Bekhruzhon Karimov in the 46th, but the visitors turned the game around: Nikolay Komlichenko reduced the deficit in the 71st minute and then equalized in the 75th, and in the 79th minute Alexey Miranchuk scored the winning goal after a low cross from Daniil Krugovoy. This was reported by Gazeta.Ru.

Rapoport's assessment

Former Zenit coach Boris Rapoport called the Russians' victory well deserved. According to him, Valery Karpin made successful substitutions: almost all of the players who came on got into the game and turned the match around. At the same time, he admitted that three of the five goals in the match were 'rather curious' — 'somewhere we messed up, somewhere the Uzbeks were acting foolishly' — but stressed that the Russian national team 'began to force them into mistakes, kept up the pressure.' His words are quoted by Vprognoze.ru.

Context and next match

This was only the second head-to-head meeting between the two teams: the first, held in November 2022 in Tashkent, ended in a 0:0 draw. As part of the November training camp, Karpin's team will play one more match — on November 17 Russia will face Venezuela in Krasnodar. In the previous training camps in September and October, the Russians beat Iran (2:0) and Namibia (6:0) and drew with Nigeria (3:3).