Five-star World Cup opening for Russia as hosts put hapless Saudi Arabia to the sword in front of Putin
The Russians serve up an adrenaline-fuelled performance for an 80,000-capacity Luzhniki crowd
The Russians served up an adrenaline-fuelled performance for an 80,000-capacity Luzhniki crowd which included President Vladimir Putin and the Saudi crown prince.
The Luzhniki exploded into raptures after only 12 minutes when Yury Gazinsky headed home for the opener. Better still, with Russians looking for the early shoots of a footballing Renaissance in a side cramped by a financially rich but poor quality domestic league, the cross that set up the tournament’s opening goal came from CSKA Moscow’s 22-year-old Aleksandr Golovin.
Denis Cheryshev showed great skill of his own to double the hosts’ lead just before half time with a left-footed piledriver, and Artem Dzyuba headed Russia’s third in the 71st minute – 89 seconds after coming on as a substitute.
Cheryshev and Golovin hit a further two in injury time, the latter from a free-kick, to complete the visitors’ misery.
Egypt and Uruguay are due to play the second group A match in Yekaterinburg on Friday.