Fabio Capello began his era as the Russian national team manager with a 1-1 draw with the Ivory Coast. The former England manager was recently the announced as the outgoing Russian manager. His first ever match as the Russian National team manager was against Ivory Coast. He had created an uproar amongst the Russian fans just prior to the match by announcing the appointment of Andrei Arshavin as the captain of the national team. Many fans had demanded that the 30-year-old Arsenal winger be removed from the captain’s post after his degrading comments about the Russian national team following the Euro 2012 exit at the group stages.

One of the main tasks of the former England manager will be to get the Russian national team into the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The qualification for the World Cup will be beginning shortly and one got a great taste of the managerial skills of the former Real Madrid manager in the match against Ivory Coast. CSKA Moscow midfielder Alan Dzagoev was on the scoresheet for Russia, whileSt Etienne player Max Gradel secured the equaliser for Ivory Coast. Both teams were unable to secure the goal that would separate them in the remainder of the match.

“It was a very uneasy match as Ivory Coast team have a set of very strong players in their line-up. I’m really pleased with the Russian team’s performance. I knew the team is strong but today I’ve got more proof of that. I had a precious opportunity to test young players against strong rivals. Some of them made a debut performance today and I’m glad that now they have a chance for further development,” said Fabio Capello after the match. The Premier league players like Andrei Arshavin were part of the team along with the former Premier league players like Roman Pavlyuchenko.