As Golovin shows he’s a cut above
Whilethebigguysupfront were all fun and games, the true star of this Russia performance was Aleksandr Golovin.
A creative midfielder with CSKA Moscow, the 22-year-old prodigy was shunted wide to make space for the team’s star, Alan Dzagoev, but when his club-mate went down with a hamstring injury in the first half it allowed Golovin to take centre stage, both in terms of position and the narrative.
His whipped crosses provided two goals for Russia while he also played a part in the second and then scored the fifth as part of a virtuoso display that will have had the onlooking Russian president Vladimir Putin purring, assuming he occasionally takes a break from steely gazes.
But purr he should, and so should all of Russia.
For all the negativity surroundingthem,theirWorld Cupandtheirchances,they are now halfway to qualifying for the knockout round — perhaps even more than that.
“Billions of people on our planet wherever we live, whatever traditions we hold, football brings us together,” said Putin pre-match and this team will bring Russia together as long as they keep winning, so when Denis Cheryshev scored his stunning second, Russia’s fourth, right at the death and then that man Golovin made it five, the realisation was complete — why live in the real world when getting carried awayissomuchfun?
Russia is about to find out.