TASS - Russia has achieved tremendous progress in recent years and particularly in its preparations for hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Carlos Queiroz, the head coach of the Iranian national football team, said on Monday.

According to reports earlier in the day, Over 23,000 tickets have been already sold for a friendly football match between the national teams of Russia and Iran, which is due to kick off on Tuesday night in Russia’s Kazan.

The Portuguese coach of the Iranian team said addressing a news conference in Kazan on Monday that he knew Russia for quite a while, paid a visit to the country back in 2008 and it was a private visit, not business.

Queiroz said he was pleasantly surprised with the progress of the country, which, according to him, underwent fantastic changes as it had been preparing for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The coach of the Iranian football team also said that the Russian squad reached a new higher level of game compared with the games it played at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Queiroz added that although the Asian football still had to learn from the European football he was very proud that his Iranian team managed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and tomorrow’s friendly match against Russia would be unpredictable and help his squad to learn more about the championship’s possible opponent.

National teams around the globe are currently in the qualifying stage, battling for a place in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, while Russia as the host nation has been already guaranteed a berth in the world’s main quadrennial football event.

Therefore, the Russian national team is playing friendly football matches in the run-up to the much anticipated 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The friendly match against Iran will be second for Russia in four days as the national team, led by Head Coach Stanislav Cherchesov, played another friendly on Saturday night in Moscow against South Korea. The match at the VEB-Arena in the Russian capital on October 7 ended 4-2 in favor of the hosting team.

After successfully hosting the FIFA Confederations Cup this summer, Russia is now in full-swing preparations to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The country selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital.

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