Russia

Russia has seamlessly returned to football – and nobody seems overly perturbed | Jonathan Liew

26-Mar-2023 07:00:11 | The Guardian

Europe may be prepared to ‘forget Russia’ but closer ties to Asian confederation are a warning sign of what is to come

The Azadi Stadium in Tehran can hold up to 78,000 at capacity. As Anton Miranchuk of Lokomotiv Moscow kicked off under a giant portrait of the former supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini on Thursday night, let’s generously say it wasn’t quite full. Still, what crowd there was made a pretty decent noise.

There were even a few hundred travelling fans, who were rewarded when Miranchuk scored for Russia from the penalty spot. Early in the second half the Porto striker Mehdi Taremi equalised for Iran, and although the later stages disintegrated into a procession of substitutions, the visitors were ultimately a little fortunate to escape with a 1-1 draw.