Milan, Italy, September 21, 2018 – Russia opened the programme of Pool E in Milan with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over the Netherlands to improve their record in the tournament to four wins and two losses.
Sergei Shliapnikov, coach of Russia: “We are satisfied with this victory but we know that we can do more. Tomorrow it will be a tough game since Italy play at home, and they are supported by their home crowd but, but we want to win and will do whatever possible to continue our journey in this World Championship.”
Nimir Abdel-Aziz, captain of the Netherlands: “If we wanted to win with Russia we needed to do everything perfectly and hope that they were not in a perfect shape. Tonight we did not play at our best. They always put us under pressure, and we suffered a lot. Tomorrow we will try to do better, but we need to limit our errors. Against Italy, it will be difficult for everyone, not only for us; however, it will be nice, in any case, to play in front of this crowd. Now the focus in only on the next match against Finland, we will think about Italy after that.”