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Russia beat Saudi Arabia 5-0, PHOTO Getty Images
Russia made light work of their opponents in entertaining match between the competition’s two lowest-ranked teams as Saudi Arabia proved to be the most courteous guests imaginable. They were beaten 5-0 by a five-star Russia side.
The UK Sun Sports reports that no tournament has ever benefited from the exit of a host nation and thanks to a shockingly poor display from the Saudis, an historically-poor Russia have given themselves a decent chance of qualifying from Group A.
Goals from Yuri Gazinsky, Denis Cheryshev (two), Artem Dzyuba and Aleksandr Golovin earned the Russians a thumping victory – their first win in eight matches – in front of 78,000 at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.
This was never likely to be a classic opener between teams ranked 67th and 70th in the FIFA rankings – with Russia somehow beneath the visitors – and thanks to some non-league defending from the Saudis, it bordered on farce at times.
After a weirdly low-key opening ceremony – basically just a mini Robbie Williams gig with some dancers doing keepy-up – we were treated to some lovey-dovey words from international man of peace Vladimir Putin.
Then it was down to what were officially the two worst teams in the tournament to kick us off – and, by thunder, Saudi Arabia were bad.
They gave the ball away with a regularity which suggested acute colour-blindness and defended with amateur-hour haplessness.
It took just 13 minutes for the Russians to strike – Aleksandr Golovin crossing to the back post, where Gazinsky headed back across goal to open the scoring.
Heading to the stadium, it felt as if the majority of the crowd would be South Americans – the Peruvians, in particularly, were hear in their thousands.
But when Gazinsky scored, the Russians made their presence felt by making one hell of a racket.
Saudi keeper Al Muaiouf came to the rescue of his clownish defenders when he clawed away Fedor Smolov’s deflected shot soon after.
Russian forward Alan Dzagoev was forced off with a hamstring injury but his replacement, Cheryshev, was the man who made it 2-0 before half-time.
Again, the Saudi defending was abysmal – three of their back four fell over during the move.
But Cheryshev’s work was exquisite as he flicked over a tumbling Saudi then lashed into the roof of the net from a narrow angle.
After the break, the Saudis actually managed to carve out a couple of scoring chances but they were undone at the back when sub Dzubya headed in a curling centre from Roman Zobnin before Cheryshev hit the goal of the night with a screamer from distance.
