WAL 1-3 RUS: Russia Narrow Down Group 4

Hello to all Russia fans. Yesterday (Sept 9) Russia defeated Wales 3-1 in Cardiff to earn a playoff spot and eliminate the home team. Germany’s 4-0 defeat of Azerbaijan effectively eliminated the visitors as well as Finland and Liechtenstein. This means that Group 4 in the UEFA zone of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers is down to Germany and Russia. But anyway here are my thoughts on yesterdays game.

Russia
In my opinion the match started in Wales’ favor but slowly began to turn. Russia began to gain the edge and took the lead through Semshov. In my opinion the Semshov-Zyrianov partnership in the center of the midfield proved to be a dominating force. One thing to note was the unusual role for Sergei Semak as a left midfielder and the absence of Dinyar Bilyaletdinov. In defense, Hiddink once again proved that he knows the best back up players as Renat Yanbayev showed a excellent cover for Yuri Zhirkov. I also feel that James Collins could have been better marked in order to prevent the goal from being scored. Up front, Kerzhakov and Arshavin constantly switched sides to provide dangerous passes and run-ins into the Welsh box.

Wales
From my point of view, this was not Wales’ best game. I feel that they gave too much pace for the Russian attack to operate. On the positive side however, Caig Bellamy and Joseph Ledley provided very dangerous threats which were quickly countered by the Russian defense. Towards that end, fatigue could be seen in the Welsh defense as they could not keep up with Pavlyuchenko as he scored the third and final goal.

In the big picture, I think that with this momentum Russia can look to their meeting with Germany is Moscow with confidence and momentum. I think the Russian team will be a formidable opponent for Germany and it will surly be reminiscent of the Euro 2008 qualifier against England in 2007.

I look forward to reading your comments.