Hiddink off to Winning Start with Russia
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-08-17 13:42 A late injury-time goal from
striker Pavel Pogrebnyak got new Russian national coach Guus Hiddink off to a
winning start in the friendly against Latvia.
Tomsk striker Pogrebnyak scored the only goal of the tie at Lokomotiv
Moscow's 32,000-seater stadium to boost morale three weeks ahead of Russia's
opening Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia.
Hiddink took over after guiding Australia into the last 16 round of the World
Cup this summer.
But the 59-year-old Dutchman opted against any revolutionary changes picking
a set of field-tested players for his starting line-up.
Russia seized the initiative from the outset, pinning their rivals back, but
to no immediate effect as Latvia defended stoutly and the hosts' lacked
accuracy.
After the break Russia still dominated, but failed to find the net though
Roman Pavlyuchenko, Andrei Arshavin and Igor Semshov all had chances.
Dynamo Kiev striker Maris Verpakovskis also had a clear opportunity to put
Latvia ahead in the 69th minute but failed to send the ball into unguarded net
after he escaped an offside trap and Russian goalie Igor Akinfeyev looked
beaten.
But Russia scraped out the victory in the third minute of injury time when
Pogrebnyak fired home from seven metres out to finish off a Pavlyuchenko header.
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