In their first of three friendly matches, Russia dismantled a weak Kazakhstan squad 6-0 in Moscow on Friday. Kazakhstan held the Russians scoreless through the first 25 minutes of play until forward Pavel Pogrebnyak converted a penalty in the 26th minute. Pogrebnyak scored 10 goals during Zenit Saint Petersburg’s 2007-2008 UEFA Cup title run. Prior to half, midfielder Vladimir Bystrov extended the lead to 2-0. The right winger is renowned in Europe for his pace down the right-hand side. He plays for Spartak Moscow.
In the second half, midfielder Konstantin Zyryanov, another product of Zenit Saint Petersburg pushed the score to 3-0 at the hour mark. You may recall that Zyryanov scored the second goal in the recent UEFA Cup final against Rangers FC. The score remained 3-0 until the final five minutes when Diniyar Bilyalitdinov, Dmitry Torbinsky and Dmitry Sychev added three more to the score sheet. All three play for FC Lokomotiv Moscow.
Russia along with Greece, Spain, and Sweden will compete in Group D at Euro 2008. Their first match in the tournament is against Spain on June 10th at the Tivoli Neu Stadion in Innsbruck.
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