However, Hiddink was always intending to leave at the end of the season to fulfil commitments with
the Russian national side.
The 84,000 - capacity Luzhniki stadium stages games of
the Russian national side, Spartak and Torpedo.
Incontrovertibly, his presence as head coach of
the Russian national side brought a calm to quell the storm created under previous manager Fabio Capello, who left the post under a cloud of unpopularity and stagnation in July 2015.
Iran head coach Carlos Quieroz spoke fondly about
the Russian national side ahead of the friendly between the two nations on Tuesday night.
Not exact matches
It had been a memorable few months for
Russian football, Zenit's UEFA Cup triumph in May preceding the
national side's run to the UEFA EURO 2008 semi-finals, and the St Petersburg club wrote another proud chapter in their history in Monte Carlo, both goals coming from players with particular motivation to shine.