Hosts Russia began their World Cup encounter on Thursday defeating Saudi Arabia by 5 – 0.
It was the opening match of World Cup 2018.
The Russians served up an adrenaline-fuelled performance for an 80,000-capacity Luzhniki crowd which included President Vladimir Putin and the Saudi crown prince.
The Saudis played some nice, tight football at times, but were never able to match the Russian hosts for energy or intent.
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Luzhniki exploded into raptures after only 12 minutes when Yury Gazinsky headed home for the opener.
Denis Cheryshev showed great skill of his own to double the hosts’ lead just before half time with a left-footed piledriver, and Artem Dzyuba headed Russia’s third in the 71st minute – 89 seconds after coming on as a substitute.
Cheryshev and Golovin hit a further two in injury time, the latter from a free kick, to complete the visitors’ misery.
Egypt and Uruguay are due to play the second Group A match in Yekaterinburg on Friday.
*Additional report: Al Jazeera
