MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/. The Russian national football team defeated their opponents from Cuba 8-0 in a friendly home match on Monday night at a stadium in the country’s southern city of Volgograd.

Hosts Russia chalked up three goals in the first half of the match with Ivan Oblyakov scoring a goal on the 22nd match of the game. Two more goals before the half-period break were scored by Alexander Golovin (30th minute) and Anton Miranchuk (34th minute).

Playing on the home turf the Russian team netted five more goals in the second half of the match against the Cuban team and they were delivered by Alexander Silyanov (55th minute), Alexander Sobolev (66th minute), Danil Prutsev (68th minute), Nikita Krivtsov (74th minute) and Andrei Mostovoi (78th minute).

The friendly 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. The match on Monday night was attended by over 40,700 spectators.

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, has a population of over one million people, situated along the Volga River. The city and the surrounding areas were the scene of the fiercest battles of World War II, including the Battle of Stalingrad, which was widely 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).