New Russia coach Fabio Capello vowed Wednesday his team would play quality football to bring Russian fans back to the stadiums.
Capello’s reign started Wednesday with a 1-1 home friendly draw with the Ivory Coast in front of a crowd of 12,500 at the 28,800-capacity Lokomotiv stadium in Moscow.
Russia’s last home game, a friendly at the same venue against Uruguay in June, also suffered from poor attendance.
“I knew that the stadium wouldn’t be full. I had been warned about this before the match. But we should make the stadiums full again,” Capello said.
“If we show the qualities and team spirit we did today, I think people will be coming to the stadiums as they did before.”
Russia played with a lone striker for the Ivory Coast game, with Roman Pavlyuchenko up front in the first half and Alexander Kokorin in the second.
Capello said that he had decided to stick with this system for the time being despite a personal preference for two strikers.
“I told the guys we won’t change the playing model and won’t have any revolutions for now,” he said, adding that he envisaged altering the team’s tactics after getting to know the players better.
“The example of Real Madrid is the one I have always preferred in my career. I have always preferred to play with two forwards,” he said.
Russia’s next game is against Northern Ireland on September 7 in qualifying for the World Cup and will be Capello’s first competitive game in charge.
