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Host nation Russia opened their 2018 world cup account with a five-nil thrashing of Saudi Arabia on Thursday.
The opening match was billed as a clash of the minnows because the two teams are the lowest ranked nations in this year’s 32-team tournament.
Coming into the clash, hosts Russia had lost three of their warm-up matches and only managed one draw that came in their last warm-up match against Turkey.
Their opponents on the day, Saudi Arabia had not fared any better as they also lost three of their warm-up matches coming into the opening fixture of the 2018 World Cup.
Saudi Arabia’s superior ranking of 67th in the Fifa world rankings – compared with Russia’s 70th – may have given the Green Falcons hope of pulling off a much-needed victory in a group that includes even tougher opponents such as Egypt and Uruguay.
However a five-star performance by Russia – who ran riot over the Saudis, scoring as early as the 12th minute – deflated any hopes by the Saudis of progressing into the round-of-16 stage of the tournament.
The hosts displayed a clinical defensive performance and were relentless in their attacks, giving fans who had filled Moscow’s 80 000 capacity Luzhniki Stadium lots to cheer for.
The host nation got on the score sheet in the 12th minute of the match with a Yury Gazinsky header.
It was Gazinsky’s first goal of his international career.
Russian coach Stanislav Cherchesov also made a host of inspired changes with the host nation’s second, third and fourth goals all being scored by substitutes brought in by the former national team goal-minder.
Artem Dzyuba netted the second goal while Denis Cheryshev added two more to kill off the match as a contest.
With time running out, young star Aleksandr Golovin stepped up to strike a sublime fifth goal off a free kick before the Argentine Referee Nestor Pitana blew his whistle to put the Saudis out of their misery.
However, Russia’s victory came at a price with midfielder Alan Dzagoev having to be substituted as early as the first half for an apparent hamstring injury.
Russian fans will not be too disappointed as Dzagoev’s replacement, Cheryshev, scored moments after the former was taken off.
Before the match kicked off, the stadium was graced with a short opening ceremony with England’s Robbie Williams performing alongside young Russian artist Aida Garifullina. About 500 dancers, gymnasts and trampolinists also formed part of the opening event before an extravagant closing firework display.
Africa will be eagerly awaiting the continent’s first appearance as the Pharaohs of Egypt clash against South Americans Uruguay on Friday afternoon.
Another African powerhouse, Morocco, will be in action later in the day against Iran, while a mouth-watering clash between Portugal and Spain will round off Friday’s fixture.
The Spanish team will be reeling from the firing of their coach Julen Lopetegui on the eve of World Cup after Real Madrid announce him as their replacement for departed Zinedine Zidane.
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