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Nobody expected Russia to play this well! They literally ran riot on the Czech defense, which has one of the World’s top goalkeepers, Petr Cech, winning the game 4-1.
So, what does this mean? Let us take a look.
1. Alan Dzagoev has all the potential to become the next Russian Superstar
In the last edition of the European Championships, a certain Andrei Arshavin raised quite a few eyebrows with his exceptional performance. He was later picked up by Arsenal and went on to become a global phenomenon.
Last night, the 21 year old Dzagoev scored twice helping his team win 4-1. But, what is even more important is that the fact that he scored twice with relatively poor finishing. If he had capitalized on all the opportunities presented to him, he could have scored more.
He is already a proven talent in Russia, playing for CSKA Moscow. Now, he has the perfect chance to display his talents to the rest of the world.
2 . The group is still wide open
Despite the heart breaking result, Czech Republic still have a chance of progressing to the next round. The other two teams in their group, hosts Poland and Greece, played out a draw last night and that means, if Czech can get the better of them, they might progress to the next round.
They can take solace in the fact that neither Poland not Greece are as tactically and offensively sound as Russia. Greece, on the other hand, will be moaning over their missed penalty kick which could have earned them a victory.
3. Petr Cech can’t do it all
No matter how good the keeper is, you need at least a half decent defense to hold up play. Petr Cech is arguably the best goalkeeper in the world today, but he was left exposed last night. Czech Republic’s holding midfielders left a gaping hole in the system and their defence was easily exploited by a far superior Russian side.
Czech’s can’t handle counter attacking and they were totally clueless. If they want to progress, their defence has to get stabilized.
4. Russia can well and truly be the dark horses
From here, Russia will win the group with ease. They might even rest their main players for the final game. If they win this group, they will face the second placed team in Group B, which consists of Germany, Portugal, Netherlands and Denmark. They were the semi-finalists in 2008 losing to eventual Champions, Spain.
5. Beware of the Russian counter attack
If you see the statistics of last night’s game, you will find out that both Russia and Czech has almost the same amount of possession and shots. Still, Russia managed to win the game 4-1!
The only difference between the two teams was the Russian counter attack. Russia were simply awesome breaking out and they left defenders way behind, breaking through to goal consistently. Russia have devised a wonderful style and if they keep this up, they will be hard to beat.
So, if you are facing Russia, you should be beware of their counter attacks.
