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Vladimir Putin has criticised the Russia national team for their poor performances ahead of the 2018 World Cup on home soil. Speaking two days after Russia lost 2-1 to Qatar in a friendly between the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts, Putin said: "To be honest, we haven't seen beautiful play from the national team for a long time." The Russian president also compared their performance with Russia's "pleasing" ice hockey team. Russia have won just one of their last 10 games and crashed out of this summer's European Championship without winning a game. That prompted the resignation of coach Leonid Slutsky, but things have not picked up under his replacement Stanislav Cherchesov, whose four games in charge have included a draw with Turkey and defeat to Costa Rica. Despite all this, the team has been set a target of reaching the semifinals in 2018. Of particular concern for Cherchesov is the need to revitalise a team that was among the oldest at Euro 2016, amid a lack of obvious young talent. In a sign of the audition process underway, the current squad includes five inexperienced central defenders, none of whom have played more than four times for Russia. Recriminations followed the European Championship campaign when two players were disciplined after being filmed partying in a Monaco nightclub with champagne as the Russian anthem played, following their team's elimination from the tournament. Russia's next game is a friendly against Romania on Tuesday in Grozny, the capital of the Russian region of Chechnya. It will be the first Russia game to be played in Chechnya, where UEFA has previously banned European competitive matches from being held due to security concerns.
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