The Russian team started on September 22 at the Caspian Cup in Astrakhan. In a duel with Azerbaijan, a victory was won with a score of 2-1.

Russia took control of the territory from the first minutes and in positional attacks rocked the opponent’s defense. Azerbaijan responded with quick breakthroughs, completing them either with blows. In this vein, this fight developed until the 11th minute. The direct approach had no effect, and a brilliant attack came to the rescue, played at high speeds of 1-2 touches by all the players of the Russian team: Ruslan Kudziev had only to close the far post. And just before the break, the score increased: the Azerbaijanis did not catch Artem Niyazov at their goal: he calmly took the ball and shot past the goalkeeper sighted.

After the break, the fight tightened, by the 26th minute the two teams scored 7 fouls, five of which were on the account of the guests. Azerbaijanis could quickly reduce the backlog, but the ball hit the goal frame.

Eight minutes before the siren, both opponents had already reached the limit of violations, and Alesio’s wards began to connect the fifth field. Ours could triple the advantage, when Niyazov and Kudziev fled to a counterattack, this was not allowed to be done on the ribbon of Huseynli and Vassur. The main tension in these minutes hung over the possessions of Zamtraradze. At the 36th minute, the last line faltered – Eduardo reduced the gap, and Sergey Skorovich immediately took a timeout.

The opponent continued to harass, and the main episode happened seven seconds before the siren, when twice in a row the Russian team was rescued by Georgy Zamtaradze. Not without difficulty, the Russians begin this tournament with a minimum victory of 2-1.