MOSCOW: Russia will go into their home World Cup without a win in seven games after drawing 1-1 with an under-strength Turkey team on Tuesday.

Russia’s players left the field to jeers from some in the crowd, having recorded just one shot on target in their last two friendlies before the World Cup.

“I don’t think there’s any need to worry,” Russia coach Stanislav Cherc­hesov said. “Today is only June 5 and our [opening World Cup] game is June 14 at 6 p.m., if I remember rightly. There’s still enough time.”

German Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg midfielder Yunus Malli came off the bench at half-time to cancel out Spartak Moscow right winger Alexander Sam­edov’s 35th minute opener and deny Russia a first win in eight months.

“The draw seems to be the most fair result though we could have scored more goals today,” Cherchesov said. “I think we’ve made a qualitative leap ahead by comparison to the match with Austria.”

Turkey, who are rebuilding after failing to make it into the World Cup finals in Russia, started in a lively fashion seeking an early opener but failed to create any serious threat in the opening quarter-hour.

Russia, spurred by the capacity 30,000 crowd at VTB Arena, CSKA Moscow’s home ground, soon took over the initiative pinning the visitors back but Turkey defended stoutly stifling the hosts’ attacks into poorly targeted crosses.

The hosts broke the deadlock when they intercepted the ball just outside the visitors area and CSKA playmaker Alan Dzagoev found Samedov in the area and he kept his cool to effortlessly chip Turkish goalkeeper Serkan Kirintili from a tight angle.

Turkey leveled in the 60th when Russia failed to close down Malli, allowing the former Germany under-21 player to hit a shot low and hard from distance past veteran goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev, one of Turkey’s few chances of the match.

Despite energetic midfield performances from 22-year-old playmaker Alexander Golovin and Spartak Moscow’s Roman Zobnin in the first half, the team struggled to link up with striker Fedor Smolov and failed to create chances.

Krasnodar forward Smolov, Russia’s top scorer in 2016-17 and second this year, missed a chance to restore the hosts lead in the 72nd minute when he sent the ball just inches wide of the right post with a 12-yard shot.

Turkey nearly added a second goal in the 79th minute when Malli’s shot floated just over the crossbar.

Turkey coach Mircea Lucescu said Russia are struggling to cope with the pressure of a home World Cup.

“It was clear the Russian team was worried in this game,” he said. “It was a stirring match for the Russian team. I just felt the pressure in the air ahead of the World Cup start. Meanwhile, for us it was a good experience and I’m happy with the result.”

Since the start of 2016, Russia have won only one game of 13 against teams which qualified for the World Cup, and has conceded in each of their last 10 games. Russia have five wins, six draws and nine defeats since Cherchesov took over in August 2016.

Russia are 66th in the FIFA rankings, the second lowest-ranked team in the 32-nation tournament. They have yet to reach the World Cup knock-out stage in the post-Soviet era.

Russia open the World Cup at Moscow’s vast Luzhniki arena June 14 against Saudi Arabia, the only team in the competition that is lower in the world rankings, and also face Egypt in St Petersburg on June 19 and Uruguay in Volgograd on June 25 in Group ‘A’.

Turkey haven’t qualified for the World Cup since 2002.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2018