KAZAN: The Russian national football squad enjoyed a 2-0 win over Iran in their friendly football match played on Tuesday night in Kazan, ...
KAZAN: The Russian national football squad enjoyed a 2-0 win over Iran in their friendly football match played on Tuesday night in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Both goals were scored by Russian striker Alexander Golovin, who also plays for AS Monaco. He opened the score netting a ball in the 21st minute and some fifteen minutes later he scored again on a penalty kick.
Reached by journalists after the match, Golovin seemed less concerned with the win and more with an injury he sustained.
"I hurt my ankle five minutes before they took me out, during an attack. It still hurts," he told journalists.
Russia and Iran previously played against each other four times before - all in exhibition matches. In their previous encounter in Russia’s Volgograd in October 2025, the hosts defeated the Iranian team 2-1. The other three matches ended in two draws and one Iranian win.
The Russian Football Union (RFU) announced earlier in the month that the national squad is also set play two more friendly matches in early October against Namibia and Nigeria.
The match against Namibia will be played on October 3 in the Russian Urals city of Yekaterinburg while Russia will play against Nigeria on October 6 in Nizhny Novgorod.
Russia’s matches against Iran, Namibia and Nigeria will be officially registered by the world’s governing body of football, FIFA, according to the RFU.
Namibia is currently 121st in the FIFA World Rankings, while Russia stands at 35th. The two teams have never played each other. The match in Yekaterinburg will be the first for the Russian national team at the over 35,000-seat capacity Central Stadium, which was one of the 12 venues in 11 cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Nigeria is currently 26th in the FIFA World Rankings. Russia has played Nigeria once before. In June 2025, the teams met in a friendly match at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, finishing in a 1-1 draw.
Russia’s football ban
The world’s governing football body, FIFA, announced on February 28, 2022, that the Russian national team and all professional clubs representing the country were barred from participating in FIFA tournaments.
In turn, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) made a similar decision regarding the Russian national football team’s participation in UEFA tournaments.
Both FIFA and UEFA cited Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine as grounds for their respective bans on Russian teams’ participation in competitions.
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