GROUP A
Russia World Cup profile: Guide to record, squad list, path to final, team news, latest odds and star man
HOST nation Russia are making their final preparations for the World Cup.
Looking to get past the group stages for the first time since before the fall of communism, there is optimism that they can progress from a group which contains Saudi Arabia, Uruguay and Egypt.
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Here's all you need to know about the Group A side.
In a nutshell: The host nation and one of those massive nations that really should have had done more on the international stage. Further
proof that a big selection pool doesn’t always translate into success. The fans are quite handy though.
Flag: Unspectacular tricolor of three horizontal bands of white, blue and red. Not a patch on the old hammer and sickle of the Soviet Union flag.
Population: 144.3 million
Nickname: Sbornaya – it translates, imaginatively, as ‘The National Team’.
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Manager: Stanislav Cherchesov took over from the excellently-named Leonid Slutsky in August 2016 haing managed the likes of Dynamo
Moscow, Legia Warsaw and the also excellently-named Amkar Perm.
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Captain: It’s their goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev.
Star Man: It’s a toss up between Akinfeev at one end of the pitch and striker Fyodor Smolov at the other. The latter has 30 caps and is bagging an international goal once every 2.5 games.
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Rising Star: Twenty-one year-old Aleksandr Golovin seems to a midfielder with real potential.
A winner of the European U-17 Championship in 2013, he’s already represented Russia on 17 occasions, scoring two goals. Keep ‘em peeled.
Most caps: The CSKA Moscow defensive stalwart Sergei Ignashevich
(120).
All-time top scorer: Aleksandr Kerzhakov has 30 goals for Russia, although the legendary Oleg Blokhin did plunder 42 when they played as the USSR.
WORLD CUP SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Gabulov (Club Brugge), Andrey Lunev (Zenit St Petersburg).
Defenders: Vladimir Granat, Fedor Kudryashov (both Rubin Kazan), Ilya Kutepov (Spartak Moscow), Andrey Semenov (Akhmat Grozny), Sergei Ignashevich, Mario Fernandes (both CSKA Moscow), Igor Smolnikov (Zenit St Petersburg).
Midfielders: Yuri Gazinskiy (Krasnodar), Alexsandr Golovin, Alan Dzagoev (both CSKA Moscow), Aleksandr Erokhin, Yuri Zhirkov, Daler Kuzyaev (all Zenit St Petersburg), Roman Zobnin, Alexsandr Samedov (both Spartak Moscow), Anton Miranchuk (Lokomotiv Moscow), Denis Cheryshev (Villarreal).
Forwards: Artem Dzyuba (Arsenal Tula), Aleksey Miranchuk (Lokomotiv Moscow), Fedor Smolov (Krasnodar).
Nice kit? OK, so you’re not going to beat the old school classic ‘CCCP’ shirt of yesteryear but it’s decent enough with the home kit being red with white flashes at the top of the arms, white shorts and red socks & white and blue tops.
Most offensive haircut? Where do you start with Russians and their hair?
All of them, pretty much without exception, look like they’ve had theirs cut by their mums.
Any names we can laugh at like kids? Sadly, Leonid Slutsky is no longer the gaffer.
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Rivals? Poland. It’s never nice when these two sides meet.
When they played each other in Warsaw at Euro 2012, there were 183 arrests made as the two sets of fans set about each other.
Here’s hoping they don’t end up playing each other this time around.
National anthem: ‘The State Anthem of the Russian Federation’ was reinstated by Vladimir Putin.
He acted after a new lyric-free anthem introduced in the early 1990s following the collapse of communism left athletes without anything to sing at medal ceremonies.
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Sample lyric:
Be glorious, our free Motherland,
Age-old union of fraternal peoples,
Ancestor-given wisdom of the people!
Be glorious, our country! We are proud of you!
National dish: Russia is a vast country so there isn’t a national dish as such.
You might want to try some pelmeni when you’re watching
Russia’s games though. Then again, you might not, especially when you learn that it translates as ‘ear bread’.
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Unusual Russia World Cup Stadium with stands that come outside the stadium completed in Yekaterinburg
National drink: Take your pick between vodka (obviously) and the lesser-known (and less potent) kvass which is not dissimilar to a cider,
although it’s made from fermented rye bread.
World Cup Finals Record: P9 W2 D2 L5 F13 A13
World Cup Win Ratio: 22.2%
Best World Cup Performance: Since they played their first international game as Russia in 1992, they’ve never been past the group stages in three World Cup Finals appearances.
FIFA World Ranking: 63
Path to final: If the hosts make it out of the group, they will consider it a good tournament. Russia would then be likely to face a second round against Spain, followed by a quarter-final against Argentina and, on the off-chance they get there, a semi against Germany.
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