Euro 2012 Qualifiers Full-Time Report – Andorra vs. Russia: Pavel Pogrebnyak brace gives Russia easy 2-0 win
Russia were set to face Andorra in both the teams’ first match in the Euro 2012 qualifying round. Russia were undoubtedly the favourites going into the game, considering they had a much better sporting structure in the country when compared to Andorra.
Russia also has some of its players playing in the top leagues in the footballing world. The two main threats for the Russian side going into tonight's game were Andrei Arshavin, who plays for Arsenal, and Roman Pavlyuchenko, who plays for Tottenham Hotspur.
The experts predicted an easy win for the Russians before the match got underway, mainly because the Russian team possesses far more quality than the Andorran. Russia would also be looking to go all out after narrowly missing out on qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The match was scheduled to take place in Estadi Comunal which was located in Andorra la Vella, Andorra. The referees who were appointed to take charge of tonight's match were Marco Borg, who was the head referee, and Ingmar Spiteri and Alan Camilleri. All three referees were nationals of Malta.
The match got underway with Russia looking to dominate possession from the very first minute. The Russians started stringing together passes and were looking the brighter of the two.
Andorra, however, were also looking to attack the Russians on the counter. However, their efforts soon fell short as on the fourteenth minute mark, Pavel Pogrebnyak struck for the Russian team and gave them the early advantage.
This early advantage was the one thing the Andorran players and management had planned not to give away. However, their efforts to prevent it fell short as Russia took the lead.
The match continued with Russia dominating possession for most of the half, but failing to produce the final product in front of the goal.
The first half ended with the score-line being one-nil in favour of the Russian side. Both the managers would have looked to tell their players to go all out at the half time break, since getting the three points this early on can prove to be vital in the qualifying campaign.
The second half kicked off with Russia still looking to be on top of things. It was easy to tell that Andorra were trying their level best to get the better of their opponents, but weren't very successful at doing so. The team also picked up four yellow cards during the game.
In the sixty-fifth minute, Russia were awarded a penalty. The penalty was taken by the in-form striker Pavel Pogrebnyak, who got his and the team’s second goal on the night.
The match then carried out till the ninetieth minute and ended with the score-line being two nil in favour of the Russian side.
Russia leapfrogged the group to the number one spot, overtaking Ireland on goals scored. However, the most important aspect about tonight's game was the fact that neither player on both the sides picked up any injuries.
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