Russia coach Stanislav Cherchesov said his team were "mobilised" by a pregame speech from President Vladimir Putin ahead of their 2-0 FIFA Confederations Cup win over New Zealand on Saturday.
Arriving by helicopter close to $750 million new stadium in his native St. Petersburg barely 20 minutes before kickoff, Putin was soon installed in the main grandstand and made a speech to launch the tournament.
Both teams were lined up on the pitch for an unusual prematch protocol, looking up at the VIP boxes to hear from Russia's leader and FIFA president Gianni Infantino, before being able to complete their preparations.
"Here, on modern football arenas there will be tough, honest, fair fight until the last minutes of the match," Putin said in Russian, adding that the eight-team, two-week event would "unite nations and continents, to promote the values of fair and beautiful play."
After the game, Cherchesov, a former goalkeeper who played for the national team before and after the fall of communism suggested it was an advantage to have such a pep talk.
"When the president of our country comes out to make a speech it mobilises us and gives us great motivation, but it also adds to our responsibilities," Cherchesov told reporters.
"We achieved a very good result and at times a very good game. We played the match we have been planning for.
"I believe we will have the same team as we did in this game against Portugal."
Putin had also asked Russia's players to perform like warriors, though they hardly needed to be war-like in dispatching No. 95 New Zealand, which seemed to find the world stage too big.
We knew the scenario with who was coming to the game," New Zealand coach Anthony Hudson said. "I don't know if it played a part or not. We could have been more aggressive."
Fyodor Smolov, who scored his team's second goal, added: "For us it is very important to make people in the country fall in love with the national team."
Smolov plays for FC Krasnodar in the Russian league, but Cherchesov backed his player to make a move to England after taking his chance to shine.
It is the first step to the English Premier League now," Cherchesov said in English as he looked across to his also-smiling forward at the postgame news conference.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.