Pavel Pogrebnyak's second-half goal gave Russia a 1-0 win over Serbia in a friendly on Wednesday.
The Stuttgart striker scored after goalkeeper Bojan Jorgacevic had failed to block Roman Pavlyuchenko's powerful shot from outside the box in the 53rd minute.
Neither team dominated the game in the first half.
Andrei Arshavin forced Jorgacevic into making a save in the 13th minute after firing a left-footed drive toward the top corner. It was Russia's only scoring opportunity before the interval.
Igor Akinfeev, who was playing his 50th international for Russia, was never threatened by the visitors in the first half.
Pogrebnyak came on for injured Alexander Kerzhakov in the 26th minute. Five minutes later, Arshavin was injured in a collision with a defender and was substituted by Diniayar Belyaletdinov.
Serbia came close to scoring in the 57th minute when Milos Krasic met Milan Jankovic's cross from the left and fired from close range but Akinfeev blocked the ball with his legs.
Russia was in control for the rest of the game but never came close after Pavlyuchenko forced Jorgacevic for a save with a low shot from just inside the box in the 61st.
Both teams regarded the match as a warm-up for their European Championship qualifiers in September.
Russia, which is tied with Slovakia and Ireland at the top of Group B standings, will host Macedonia on Sept. 2 and Ireland four days later.
''So far, we have played all the teams (in our group) and I think, in the games we were the better team,'' Russia coach Dick Advocaat said. ''Now we have the home advantage.''
Serbia is three points behind Slovenia and a game in hand in Group C, will be on the road to Northern Ireland before hosting Faroe Islands.
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Lineups:
Russia: Igor Akinfeev, Vasily Berezutsky, Alexander Anyukov (Roman Shishkin, 46), Alexei Berezutsky, Igor Semshov, Konstantin Zyryanov (Dmitry Torbinskiy, 82), Yuri Zhirkov (Sergei Ignashevich, 68), Denis Glushakov, Alexander Kerzhakov (Pavel Pogrebnyak, 26), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Roman Shirokov, 84), Andrei Arshavin (Diniyar Belyaletdinov, 31).
Serbia: Bojan Jorgacevic, Aleksandar Kolarov, Nenad Tomovic, Nemanja Vidic, Slobodan Rajkovic, Radosav Petrovic (Nenad Milijas, 68), Zoran Tosic (Veseljko Trivunovic, 46) , Zdravko Kuzmanovic (Jovan Damjanovic, 74), Milos Krasic Bosko Jankovic, 68), Milos Ninkovic (Milan Jovanovic, 46), Marko Pantelic.
