Despite Russia failing to advance to the knockouts of the Confederations Cup which is taking place on their home turf, Stanislav Cherchesov, who is in charge of the team, reckons that they have made a massive stride in terms of quality since the early elimination from the Euros.
Early elimination from the competitions is something that Russia is used to because it’s been the case with them too often in the last few years.
They couldn’t register a single victory in World Cup and it was the same in the Euros as well.
The performance in the Euros was particularly poor because they couldn’t even draw a game and a lot of pundits declared them the worst side on show in the competition.
It was after the Euros that the Russian federation decided to make leadership changes and roped in the former shot stopper Cherchesov to help the team turn the corner, but, even he couldn’t avoid another early elimination from the Confederations Cup.
Cherchesov however remains unflustered by this elimination and stresses that the team is developing in all aspects and will continue to do so.
Cherchesov concedes that the lack of experience was something that might have hurt Russia in the Confederations Cup because it was a new look squad and there were plenty of players who never had exposure of such a big competition.
But, the 53-year old reckons that the way the team fought in all the games, the supporters who were watching it in the stadium or those who were watching it at home on TV, nobody would have had any complaints. The players gave their all on the pitch and it’s a great sign going forward. The supporters can be hopeful of this team doing really well in future.