The national teams of Russia and Iraq will meet in a friendly match. How will the upcoming duel end? We'll figure it out.
Russia
Russia continues to hold friendly matches against Asian national teams, but shows not the most outstanding results: last September Kyrgyzstan was beaten (2:1), and then there were three draws - against Tajikistan (0:0), Uzbekistan (0:0) and Iran (1:1). The match in St. Petersburg will be the first for Valery Karpin's wards since 2021. Recall that, according to the decision of the coaching staff, there are no field players who are over 30 years old among the called-up players, besides, the team is experiencing problems with personnel among the central defenders: Georgy Dzhikiya and Igor Diveev were injured right before the training camp.
Iraq
Iraq will play its first match since January of this year, where it competed in the Gulf Cup of Nations and became the winner of the competition, beating the Oman national team in the final after extra time. Almost all the players of the national team play in the local championship, and some players do not have a professional status.
Statistics and figures
- Russia is the favorite of the match according to bookmakers;
- Russia has not lost for four friendly matches;
- Russia has scored three goals in the last four games;
- Iraq has not lost for seven games;
- Iraq won the Gulf Cup of Nations in January;
- The teams have not met each other before
Forecast
I think that the Russian team should succeed in the match, because for the first time in a long time they will play in front of their fans, and the level of players is much higher than that of the Asian team. In addition, there is a big barrage of criticism against the players for the recent results, and if a victory is not achieved in the game against Iraq, then the entire Russian football community will be even more indignant. I propose to place two bets on the upcoming match: the victory of Russia and the individual total of goals of Russia (1.5) more.
