The Technical Committee of the Russian Football Union has held a meeting on Wednesday, 25 July, on the Russian national team’s performance at FIFA World Cup 2018.

The official website of the Russian Football Union reports that the meeting was chaired by Nikita Simonyan, First Vice President of the RFU, and brought together Russian national team coach Stanislav Cherchesov, his assistants Miroslav Romaschenko and Vladimir Panikov.

Stanislav Cherchesov stated in his speech that preparations to World Cup 2018 were meticulous and based on the Confederations Cup 2017 experience. He stressed that it was particularly important to be able to work at a contemporary football base in Novogorsk, which he called a hotspot of the national football. “Circumstances are ever changing. We had one disposition after Euro 2016 and another after the Confederations Cup. We have always focused at the status quo rather than past merits. The doors to the national team are not closed to anybody but no one has a guaranteed ticket to our squad either. He further stated that for many Russians the World Cup 2018 lasted until the national team lost in the quarterfinal. And the tournament was clearly a success for Russia in that context, although the team did not win the trophy. Stanislav Cherchesov also noted that qualification to Euro 2020 is going to be a very different story and a new challenge for the team. He said that shortage of time for preparation to qualification matches is going to be the main difficulty.