This is just the beginning, says Russia coach

Moscow: Russian coach Stanislav Cherchesov has called for calm following his team's 5-0 victory over Saudi Arabia in their opening World Cup Group A match.

The result on Thursday marked Russia's first win in football's showpiece event since a 0-2 defeat of Tunisia at the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea. It was also the biggest victory margin in the opening game of a World Cup since 1934, reports Efe.

Such was the magnitude of the result that Cherchesov had to temporarily leave his post-match news conference to take a call from Russian president Vladimir Putin. "He asked me to share my congratulations with the team and told us to keep playing like this," the coach said after returning three minutes later. When asked how the result made him and his team feel, Cherchesov replied: "It's just the beginning. It could have been 1-1 and nothing would have changed. "We need to get through the group. We won the first match in the (2017) Confederations Cup 2-0 but we didn't get very far. This result shows that we are on the right track. But we should turn the page now and focus on what's ahead."