On the 17th June the Confederations Cup begins and the tournament will start with a match between the teams of Russia and New Zealand. Bookmakers see the future hosts of the tournament as the clear favorites in the couple and it is hard to disagree with that, considering a number of factors, the first of which is a squad potential of the future competitors, that should be outlined, as the New Zealand team is far from being a grand of the world football.
Within the last five matches, the Russian national team managed to win twice with two draws and one defeat. The loss was registered in a domestic match against the Ivory Coast national team, while the victories were over Romania and Hungary and the points were split with Chile and Belgium. Cherchesov’s team has prepared for the upcoming tournament very seriously, the New Zealand team is not a very strong opponent and the Russians need to gain maximum points with the team.
The New Zealand national team is the strongest side in its geographical zone but in the forthcoming Confederations Cup the team looks as the clear underdog of the tournament. Before the competition in Russia, New Zealand had two friendly matches, in which they lost to Northern Ireland and Belarus with the same result of 0:1. The future guests have problems with attack, they obviously lack creativity in the front, but they at least try to act securely in defense.
The first match on the tournament will probably be nervous, the Russians will probably have the upper hand, try to score a quick goal and solve the problem in the first half already. But New Zealand have a relative order in defense, although there are problems in attack, therefore we shouldn’t expect an efficient match.
Prediction for the match: Under 3.25 goals in the match
