The Russian national football team has won its first international match against a European team since the invasion of Ukraine. Sbornaja beat Serbia 4-0 (2-0) in Moscow on Thursday. The goals for the hosts were scored by Anton Mirantschuk (22nd minute), Maksim Osipenko (32nd), Aleksei Mirantschuk (55th) and Ivan Sergeyev (90th + 1). Serbian defender Milan Gajic was shown a red card after a foul in the first half (21′).
Because of the war, Russia has been banned from all competitive international matches by the football associations FIFA and UEFA. However, UEFA allowed the friendly match on Thursday. The result should also be included in the world rankings created by FIFA. Relations between Belgrade and Moscow are still considered friendly despite the Ukraine conflict. Serbia has not participated in Western sanctions against Russia.
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Serbia received a signing bonus of 250,000 euros for the short trip to Russia. Despite the Russian association’s exclusion from all competitions at club and national team level, Serbia had no problem with the game. UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin made similar comments in a Guardian interview. “Now they are playing a friendly match: so what?” said the UEFA boss.
In the last two years, the Russian team has only played a few friendly games against associations from other continents – such as Iraq, Iran, Cuba and Cameroon. European teams have not yet been included; a planned test match against Bosnia-Herzegovina had failed. At times, Moscow even flirted with joining the Asian continental association AFC.
