The Russian national team will play Venezuela on November 17 in Krasnodar, the Russian Football Union announced. The match will be held at the “Krasnodar“ stadium and will be the last for Valery Karpin's team in 2026.
The match will be the second for Russia in the November window for national teams. Four days earlier - on November 12, the Russians will visit Uzbekistan in Tashkent. Thus, the team's schedule for the year will end with two matches within five days.
„Information about the start time of the match, tickets and broadcast will be published later“, the Russian Football Union said.
At the national team level, Russia and Venezuela have never played each other. The only match between the Soviet and Venezuelan national teams was on February 1, 1981. Then the match ended 1:1.
Venezuela reached the quarterfinals of the 2024 Copa America. In the group stage, the team defeated Ecuador 2:1, Mexico 1:0 and Jamaica 3:0. In the quarterfinals, the Venezuelans finished 1-1 with Canada, but were eliminated after a penalty shootout.
In 2026, Venezuela defeated Trinidad and Tobago 4-1 and Iraq 2-0. The team recorded draws with Uzbekistan, South Korea and Jordan, and lost to Turkey and Japan.
Russia has only held friendly matches since 2022, after FIFA and UEFA suspended the team from their tournaments due to the war in Ukraine. In their last matches, Karpin's team defeated Iran 2-0 and Namibia 6-0, and against Nigeria it ended 3-3.