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Russia coach Fabio Capello said he thought his team played well despite falling to a 1-0 defeat in Austria on Saturday. Rubin Okotie was able to slot home from Harnik's teasing cross on a first-half counter-attack, and Austria were able to hang on to win. "Tough game. The result is not OK for us because we played a good game," Capello said. "We had our chances to score goals we did not score. This is the problem. And then we made the one mistake and they scored a goal. "We played a good game. I'm happy for the performance but not the result." Capello said that there was little to separate the two sides on the pitch and that Austria should have been whistled for offside on their one successful attack. "Austria played really well on the counter-attack," Capello said. "They scored one goal on the counter-attack because it was two players offside on the wing after the cross. But we tried to play more with the ball but Austria played really well on the counter-attack. "It's a strong team, Austria, because they press a lot, they run a lot, they fight every moment." Russia hired Capello to prepare for their 2018 World Cup, when they will serve as hosts, but reports this week say the manager has not been paid in five months. The loss was Russia's first of their campaign, though they now sit third in their qualifying group through four games, five points back of leaders Austria and one behind Sweden. Capello, however, insisted it's too early to panic and said the table may be misleading because Austria have played three of their four games at home. "We [still] need to play a lot of games," Capello said. "Austria have played a lot of games at home, they need to play away [going forward]. It's a long road to arrive at the last moment for qualification.
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