MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. The Russian national football team boasts a strong line-up of goalkeepers to replace Igor Akenfeev, who decided to wrap up with his career in the national squad earlier in the month, Head Coach Stanislav Cherchesov said on Monday.
Russia’s Akenfeev, who is also a goalkeeper for CSKA Moscow FC, announced on October 1 his decision to retire playing for the national squad. He began playing for the national team on April 28, 2004, in a friendly match against Norway, becoming the youngest player to debut on the national team at the age of 18 years and 20 days.
Akenfeev was nicknamed ‘the almighty leg’ after a brilliant block of his net during a penalty shootout with the Spanish national squad during the 2018 FIFA World Cup’s match of Round 16 against Spain in July, when hosts Russia progressed to the quarterfinals stage.
"We look at everything in an operational mode," Cherchesov said speaking ahead of this week’s UEFA Nations League match against Sweden.
"Alexander Lunev was good during the previous training camp and his is still good during this training camp," Cherchesov said. "Marinato Guilherme in playing in the Champions League and Anton Shunin is enjoying a good season."
"The team is the team…, we are confident in everyone and there are no doubts about it," Cherchesov added.
The match between the national squads of Russia and Sweden is scheduled to be played on October 11 at the over 35,000-seat capacity stadium in Russia’s westernmost city of Kaliningrad, which hosted games of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, starting at 9:45 p.m. local time (19:45 GMT).
Three days later, on October 14, Russia is scheduled to play the UEFA Nations League second-leg match against Turkey at the over 44,200-seat capacity Fisht Stadium in Russia’s southern city of Sochi. Some 26.000 tickets have been already sold for the match in Sochi, which kicks off at 7:00 p.m. local time on Sunday (16:00 GMT).
Last month, the Russia defeated Turkey 2-1 in the first-leg match of the UEFA Nations League. The match was played in Turkey’s Trabzon at the over 43,000-seat capacity Senol Gunes Stadium.
The Nations League is a new biennial football tournament for men’s national teams of all the 55-member states of the European governing football body, UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations).
The tournament’s participants have been divided into four divisions or Leagues, namely from League A, which enlists the strongest teams, to League D. Each League has been divided into groups and the Russian national team was placed into Group 2 of the League B.
The Russian team shares its group with the national squads of Turkey and Sweden. All teams in the group will have to play two matches against each other (away and at home) and the best team in the group will be eventually promoted to League A, while the 3rd place team will be demoted to League C.
The Nations League format was adopted at the UEFA Congress in Astana on March 27, 2014, and the tournament was aimed at replacing international friendly football fixtures, which sports experts often deemed to be useless.
There are currently 12 teams in League A, 12 teams in League B, 15 teams in League C, and 16 teams in League D. Four nations, finishing in the top of each League, will also qualify for the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup.
The inaugural UEFA Nations League tournament kicked off in early September. The teams finishing in the top of their Leagues will be promoted to League A, which will have the national squads competing next June in the Nations League Finals.
Next summer’s tournament will include two semifinals and one final to decide which team becomes the UEFA Nations League champion. The winner of the new tournament will be awarded with a sterling-silver trophy representing all 55-member nations of the UEFA.