Russia
Friday, 06 Jun 2008 00:00
The Russian fans, like their team, are brimming with flair
Russia qualified for this summer's tournament at the expense of England. They finished runners-up in qualifying group E, on 24 points, just one point ahead of Steve McClaren's team. As a result, Guus Hiddink's players have been rewarded with a relatively straightforward group, with Spain their only real challenge.
Group D fixtures
Spain v
Russia
Innsbruck, June 10th 17:00 BST
Live on BBC
Greece v
Russia
Salzburg, June 14th 19:45 BST
Live on ITV
Russia v Sweden
Innsbruck, June 18th 19:45 BST
Live on ITV
European Championship history
Russia's performance in the European Championship as an independent state has been fairly unspectacular. The Soviet Union reached the final in 1988, only to be defeated by the Dutch.
The man in charge
Hiddink took over the Russian team in 2006. His past record in international competitions is extremely impressive, having led the Netherlands and South Korea to the World Cup semi-finals and taking Australia to their first ever World Cup.
The coach is much sought after thanks to his achievements in the international and club game. His name is constantly mentioned in the same sentence as Chelsea and after Roman Abramovich help fund his salary for the top job in Russia, you would think he owed the Chelsea owner a favour.
Team forte
Organisation. Hiddink has a reputation for getting the best out of his players, including making sure they are very well organised and disciplined. There is also some serious class in the Russian squad. Andrei Arshavin, for example, showed his quality with Uefa Cup-winning Zenit St Petersburg last season.
Achilles heel
Uefa Cup joint top-scorer Pavel Pogrebnak is still a major injury worry for Russia after suffering a serious knee injury in a friendly win over Serbia. There are also injury worries regarding their goalkeepers with Igor Akinfeev's understudy Vladimir Gabulov limping out of training the week before the tournament begins.
Player to watch
Arshavin. The Zenit St Petersburg star plays in the vital second striker's role for Russia as well as being the team's captain. Worryingly though, the influential player is suspended for the first two games of Euro 2008.
Chances of victory
Russia stand a good chance of progressing from group D. However, in the quarter-finals they will most likely face one of Italy, France or the Netherlands. Despite their strengths and relative quality, their chances of overcoming any one of those three teams must be quite low. Hiddink will hope Arshavin can make a meaningful contribution once he returns from suspension and he will no doubt make sure every single one of his players is up for it once the tournament begins.
Hiddink has done it many times before with unfancied teams in major tournaments, so what is to say he won't do it again with Russia this summer?
Squad
Goalkeepers
1 Igor Akinfeev
12 Vladimir Gabulov
16 Vyacheslav Malafeev
Defenders
2 Vasili Berezutski
4 Sergei Ignashevich
5 Aleksei Berezutski
8 Denis Kolodin
14 Roman Shirokov
22 Aleksandr Anyukov
Midfielders
3 Renat Yanbaev
7 Dmitri Torbinski
11 Sergei Semak
15 Diniyar Bilyaletdinov
17 Konstantin Zyrianov
20 Igor Semshov
23 Vladimir Bystrov
Forwards
6 Roman Adamov
9 Ivan Saenko
10 Andrei Arshavin
13 Pavel Pogrebnyak
19 Roman Pavlyuchenko
21 Dmitri Sychev