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Russian football team to play friendly against Cuba this month

The match will be held in Volgograd, in the south of Russia, on November 20

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. The Russian national football team will play a friendly football match this month against the national squad of Cuba, the press office of the Russian Football Union (RFU) announced in a statement on Friday.

The friendly match between Russia (currently 39th in FIFA Rankings) and Cuba (169th in FIFA Rankings) will be held at the Volgograd Arena, in the south of Russia, on November 20 with kick off scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Moscow time (4:30 p.m. GMT).

The 45,000-seat Volgograd-Arena was built for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and hosted four group stage matches of the world football championship.

Volgograd, formerly known as Stalingrad, is a city of over a one million residents that is outstretched alongside the Volga River. The city and the surrounding areas were the scene of the fiercest battles of World War II and the Battle of Stalingrad is considered to be the turning point in the war.

The International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) announced on February 28, 2022 that the Russian national team and all professional clubs representing the country were barred from taking part in FIFA-sanctioned events.

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) made the same decision with regard to the Russian national football team’s participation in UEFA tournaments.

Both FIFA and UEFA cited Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine as being the reason for their decisions.

Since sanctions were introduced, the Russian national football squad has played a host of friendlies against other countries, namely against Kyrgyzstan (2-1), Tajikistan (0-0), Uzbekistan (0-0), Iran (1-1), Iraq (2-0), Cameroon (1-0) and Kenya (2-2).

Egyptian Football Association (EFA) Secretary General Walid El Attar announced early this week that the Egyptian football body was interested in holding another friendly match with the Russian national team.

The national football teams of Russia and Egypt played two friendlies last month, namely on September 7 and 11, with the two squads playing to a 1-1 draw in the first one and Egypt edging Russia 2-1 in the second one.

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