Tottenham’s Roman Pavlyuchenko and Chelsea’s Yury Zhirkov, as well as Russian Premier League players Aleksandr Anukov, Konstantin Zyrianov, Igor Semshov and Vasily Berezutsky all watched the game from the bench. Their substitutes couldn’t achieve the needed result.

It all started well for Hiddink’s men as they got in front in the 13th minute. Vladimir Bystrov beat two opponents and delivered a shot, which Azeri keeper Kamran Agayev saved, only to see Andrey Arshavin score on a rebound. The Russian captain got his 16th goal for his country.

The speeds in the game were not fast, but the visitors almost doubled the score after 41 minutes, when Vladimir Bystrov’s chip-shot hit the crossbar.

Azerbaijan answered with a crossbar of its own in the beginning of the second half, before eventually surprising the overly relaxed Russians with an equalizer. Russian keeper Igor Akinfeev failed to cope with a long-range effort from Vagif Javadov in the 54th minute, and the score was tied 1-1.

Russia needed some 25 minutes to recover after the blow. But then Alan Dzagoev was brought down in the Azeri box, leaving the referee no chance but to point to the spot. Sergey Ignashecvich stepped in to take the penalty, but Kamran Agayev saved his weak shot into the lower corner in the 81st minute.

It was Russia’s last big chance of the game, and 1-1 it ended.

And despite a rather unexpected result, Russia’s coach Guus Hiddink found some positive moments in the game.

“Well, this was the last game of the group phase. And now we are going into the prolongation in November. And I think therefore it was a good test match for us, although it wasn’t a match for points in qualification. But I think it was a good game to watch. Azerbaijan played for their lives. They were very ambitious,” he said.

“For us it was good to see the team playing without six or seven players, who normally are in the first squad, to see what the others can do as well,” the Dutchman added.

Team Russia finished second in Group 4, with 22 points after 10 games.

Hiddink’s men will now face one of the second-place teams from another qualifying group.

The draw for the playoffs will be held on Monday, with the two-legged matches to take place on November 14 and 18.

Germany 1-1 Finland

Germany also couldn’t win their last encounter in the group stage. Joachim Loew men, who seemed to be still celebrating after their Moscow triumph, equalized in stoppage time through Lucas Podolski to save the home match against the Finns.

The visitors opened the score after an effort from Jonathan Johansson on 16th minute.