MOSCOW, September 29. /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian Football Union confirmed on Monday that UEFA Euro Cup 2016 qualifying match between Russia and Moldova will be held at Moscow’s newly-built Okritie-Arena, which opened early this month.

The qualifying match for the Euro Cup in France is scheduled for October 12 and initially the Petrovsky Stadium in St. Petersburg was announced as the venue for the football match between Russia and Moldova.

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) sent its delegation on Monday to inspect the new arena and announced after the delegation’s visit that the new arena in Moscow would host the match at the issue.

Alexander Kurtiyan, the head coach of the Moldovan national football team, later confirmed the news.

Construction of the new stadium for Spartak FC

The construction of the Otkritie-Arena began in 2010 with an estimated cost of 14.5 billion rubles (over $402 million). The 42,000-seat stadium occupies an area of 53,758 square meters (13.2 acres) and is almost 53 meters (174 feet) high.

The official opening of the Otkritie-Arena in the northwest of the Russian capital was held on September 5, when Spartak FC played its inaugural home match against Serbian FC Crvena Zvezda.

The new stadium was constructed solely for Spartak FC and will be also one of the venues throughout Russia to host matches of the 2018 World Cup.

Legendary Spartak FC, which throughout its almost one century-long history was 12-time USSR champion, nine-time Russia champion and holder of other numerous titles and trophies, had until recently no stadium of its own where to play home matches.

The club used to play most of its home matches at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, another one of the 12 stadiums in 11 Russian cities selected to host the 2018 World Cup matches.

Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the newly-built stadium and after a tour around the arena he said that it was “one of the best if not the best one in Europe as of today.”

Otkritie-Arena is also one of the 12 stadiums in 11 cities across Russia selected to host the matches of the 2018 World Cup.

FIFA World Cup in Russia

Russia won the bid to host the 2018 World Cup over three years ago in a tight race against the joint bid from England, Portugal and Spain and the joint bid on behalf of Belgium and the Netherlands.

Following an official ceremony held in September 2012 and attended by FIFA President Sepp Blatter, Russia eventually selected 11 out of the earlier proposed 13 cities, excluding Krasnodar and Yaroslavl. The final list of the 2018 World Cup host cities includes Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.