Russia coach, Stanislav Cherchesov is rarely lost for a laconic response and kept a straight face when asked, half an hour after Russia had all but booked their place in the last 16 of the World Cup with a 3-1 win over Egypt, whether this had been the happiest day of his life: “I hope there are many more to come,” Cherchesov responded plainly, before quickly moving on to the next question. The host are the lowest FIFA-ranked team in the tournament and were commonly cast, by fans and media alike, as the country’s worst ever. Now they look vibrant, brimming with confidence and intent: the transformation is nothing short of astonishing.
“We don’t like this word, we don’t have it in our vocabulary,” Cherchesov said when asked about the issues Russia have overcome in turning the form book upside down: “We’ve dealt with difficulties as soon as they emerged. We did our homework and learned from the mistakes that didn’t allow us to succeed in the past. There are no problems, we didn’t have problems and we won’t have problems in the future.”