Artful Artem is as stubborn as a Moscow mule

JOHNNY RUSSELL admits that Artem Dzyuba delivered an international striking masterclass to Scotland in midweek.

The Russia captain was the catalyst for a Moscow mauling on Thursday night, scoring his country’s first and third goals in a 4-0 victory.

Although central-defensive duo Mikey Devlin and Charlie Mulgrew had managed to subdue the 31-year-old (below) in the first half of the Euro 2020 qualifier, he sprung to life after the break, losing Mulgrew to volley in his team’s opener.

Involved in the build-up to further goals by Magomed Ozdoyev and Aleksandr Golovin, the moment that perhaps summed up Dzyuba’s night best came when both Devlin and Mulgrew bounced off him as he controlled the ball before delicately claiming his own second.

‘Dzyuba was always going to be a handful with his size and strength,’ said Russell. ‘But he also had great awareness of what was going on around him and he could finish too.

‘He was brilliant and he wasn’t the only one — the boy Golovin was on a different level too.

‘We’d spoken beforehand about the threat Dzyuba would pose and in the first half we dealt with him well. We had worked hard on that and the boys carried out the plan to a tee. But when you have someone of that quality you can never relax. ‘Right up to the point they scored it looked okay. We were doing our jobs well and started the second half brightly. ‘We’d managed to get a bit of a grip on the game but then the goal goes in and that set everyone back.

‘We lost another very quickly after that. We couldn’t recover.’

With Steven Naismith and Leigh Griffiths injured and Steven Fletcher making himself unavailable for selection, Steve Clarke’s options at the top of the pitch are comparatively meagre.

Oli Burke started in Moscow, with Lawrence Shankland earning his first cap as a half-time substitute. Russell will come into contention as Clarke prepares to freshen up his team to face San Marino at Hampden this evening.

Russell added: ‘We do have a few boys out at the moment and that doesn’t help. But when I look around the squad we still have quality and we feel we should be doing better. We need to show more.’