MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/. The Russian national squad has met with its fans the day after it lost to Croatia in a penalty shootout in the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday. Croatia was successful to edge Russia 4-3. The regular and the 30-minute overtime periods ended in a 2-2 draw.
Russia’s team returned to Moscow from the Black Sea resort city of Sochi early in the morning on Sunday, the meeting with its fans in the World Cup Fan Zone in the Russian capital was due to begin at 16:00 Moscow time. More than 24,000 Russian football fans gathered in the Fan Zone in Moscow by that time to meet with the players and thank them for their good performance at the FIFA 2018 World Cup.
The first to speak to the fans was the team’s head coach Stanislav Cherchesov who thanked all those who had supported the team. He said this support had been felt from the very first days of the tournament. "You were the 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th player," he said and promised that the team would demonstrate better results at the next World Cup in Qatar, although it would be difficult without such support.
Players too thanked the fans for their support. Goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev said the team had played with all the heart and soul. Alexander Golovin stressed that the emotions he had felt during the World Cup would stay in his heart for the rest of his life. Denis Cheryshev said the most important thing about the World Cup was that it gave joy to the entire country. Brazilian-born Mario Fernandes thanked the fans in Russian, saying, "Thank you, Russia."
The fans warmly greeted Alexander Samedov who earlier said he would no longer play for the national team and stressed he was proud to be member of the team. Sergei Ignashevich who said on Saturday he was finishing his sports career thanked the fans, saying, "My biggest thanks to you all and each one of you personally." "We are happy to share this festival with you," he said.
"We have proved we are a football nation. Thank you all very much," said Artem Dzyuba who was greeted with a storm of applause.
Croats preparing to stop Kane
Meanwhile, the participants in the semifinals continue to get ready for the decisive matches. Croatia’s national team, which became the last semifinalist, has arrived in Moscow to play a game against England. When asked about England’s Harry Kane, head coach of the Croatian team Zlatko Dalic stressed talking to reporters that the Croatian squad has players who can stop anyone.
Belgium’s national squad held another training session in Dedovsk, outside Moscow. After it, defender Thomas Vermaelen told reporters that the Belgians were in for a very difficult match against one of the tournament’s favorites and assured them they would spare no effort to clinch a victory.
Both semifinals will begin at 21:00 Moscow time. France will face Belgium in St. Petersburg on July 10, while the England vs Croatia match will be played at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium on July 11.
Russia is holding its first-ever FIFA World Cup, which kicked off in Moscow with a spectacular opening show on June 14.
Eleven host cities, namely Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara, were selected to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup.