MOSCOW RUSSIA continued its perfect start to qualification for the 2014 World Cup, extending its winning streak to four matches with a hard-fought 1- 0 win over visiting Azerbaijan on Tuesday.
A late goal by Zenit midfielder Roman Shirokov allowed Fabio Capello’s Russia to maintain its 100 percent record in Group F, as it moved onto 12 points to stay top of the table, six points ahead of second-placed Portugal, who play Northern Ireland later on Tuesday.
“I warned my players that it would be a very uneasy clash as Azerbaijan are a very wellorganised team since (Berti) Vogts took them over,” Russia manager Fabio Capello said.
The Italian added: “And it was a hard match as the Azeri squad performed very solid play in defence. We missed a hatful of chances but managed to achieve the desired result and it’s the main thing about this match.” Azerbaijan started in lively fashion and created the game’s first scoring chance in the fourth minute, when full back Sergei Ignashevich’s last-ditch block denied Ali Gokdemir’s close-range attempt.
Russia, following up Friday’s 1-0 win over Portugal, replied positively, pinning Azerbaijan back and threatening on a series of occasions only to be undone by their inaccuracy in front of Kamran Agayev’s goal.
Alexander Kokorin came close to putting the hosts in front on 25 minutes but his uncontested shot from the edge of the box went just inches wide of Agayev’s righthand post.
Kokorin’s strike partner Alexander Kerzhakov was then denied by the frame of the goal on the half-hour mark as his strike from just inside the area rebounded off the woodwork.
Midfielder Dmitry Kombarov and skipper Igor Denisov also squandered opportunities for the home side prior to the break.
Russia continued to dominate play after the interval on the synthetic surface at Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium, keeping Azerbaijan under constant pressure but the visitors defended confidently, restricting Capello’s side to speculative long-range efforts.
Russia appeared bereft of ideas as they looked to be running out of gas around the hour mark with passes going astray and their play growing increasingly erratic.
Shirokov then had a pointblank effort kept out by the legs of Agayev on 73 minutes, but the Zenit player made amends six minutes from time as he slotted home the winner from the penalty spot after defender Gokdemir had brought down substitute midfielder Vladimir Bystrov to spare Russia’s blushes.
“I’d like to congratulate Russia with a deserved win,” said Vogts, Azerbaijan’s German manager.
“They looked more fresh and powerful than our team and they performed a classy attacking-style football.” “I’m pleased with my team’s performance today even though we failed both to keep the scores level and to fulfil our main goal and score here in Moscow.”
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