FC Krasnodar players capped for their national teams on 27 March.
Striker Fyodor Smolov, acting as a team captain, scored his 12th goal for the Russia national team. He did so against France, one of the best national team in the world, in a friendly game that was held in Saint Petersburg and ended with a 3-1 win of the visitors. Interestingly enough, Smolov marked himself with this goal after a classy assist by Igor Smolnikov, an ex-player of the Bulls.
FC Krasnodar Academy-trained Ilya Zhigulyov acted as another team captain for another Russian squad, the Russia national U-21 team. As a reminder, Ilya has an actual contract with our Club, but he is currently paying on loan in FC Tosno. The midfielder spent a full 90 minutes on a field of play, like Smolov did, and marked himself with an assist thus helping his team to smash Gibraltar 5-0 in a game of the 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition. The Russians are second in their group at the moment, and they are only two points behind the leaders, Team Serbia, who have played one game less.
Two black-green centre-backs, Aleksandr Martynovich, and Andreas Granqvist, stayed in reserve of their national teams tonight. Team Belarus of the former achieved a somewhat unexpected 2-0 win over Slovenia in an away friendly game. This win has effectively become the second consecutive one for the White Wings. As for the Sweden national team of the latter, they lost again as they did four days ago. The Blågult were beaten 1-0 in an away scrimmage against Romania. FC Krasnodar midfielder Viktor Claesson took part in this match, but he was fielded on the 83rd minute when the only goal of the game had already been scored.
Defensive midfielder Charles Kaboré captained for his Burkina Faso national team that suffered a 2-0 defeat from Kosovo in a game played at the neutral ground in France.
Finally, striker Andrei Ivan came in as a substitution on the 63rd minute for the Romania national U-21 team in a preparation match against the British club Wolverhampton U23. The teams played in England and tied 2-2 with the visitors escaping defeat at the death a few seconds before the full-time.
Photo by Rsport.ru