World Cup Russia 2018: Russia – Preview, Squad, and Potential Line-Up

World Cup Russia 2018: Russia – Preview, Squad, and Potential Line-Up

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Finally, we have come to the break down of all participating teams in the tournament. Where is the best place to start? The host nation of course. Russia is the lowest ranked host nation of all time and there are a lot of questions regarding the quality of the team and what the supporters are going to do. During the 2016 Euro’s in France, a small but significant part of the Russian fans made mayhem in Marseille and other French cities. According to the Russian authorities, there will be a massive police present during the tournament but you never know. If a similar situation would occur during this tournament, it could seriously taper with the team’s performance and its reputation. The former goalkeeper and now head coach Stanislav Cherchesov’s team is put together with mostly player in the domestic league with some exceptions. But will the host nation have any chances to advance to the knock-out stages?

Well, yes but the chances are slim even though the odds are pretty good for the team. Personally, I believe this is somewhat surprising as the team is the lowest ranking team in the tournament. As of now, the biggest offensive threat Aleksandr Kokorin is not in the preliminary 28 man squad due to a knee injury that has kept him out almost all season. Moreover, you have Akinfeev, the biggest star of the team. The veteran goalkeeper has been guarding the CSKA Moscow since, what feels like forever but the keeper is notorious to mess up in important fixtures. To carry a whole nation, in their home tournament, this could be disastrous for the team. Later you have players like Alan Dzagoev, the crazy talent of CSKA who never really became the star that was promised, Fyodor Smolov of Krasnodar and Yuri Zhirkov. The odds for Russia to advance are not great but with the support of the home fans.

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As the team has not delivered their official squad, this is their 28-man preliminary squad: 

Goalkeepers:

Igor Akinfeev, Vladimir Gabulov, Soslan Dzhanaev, Andrey Lunev.

Defenders:

Vladimir Granat, Sergei Ignashevich, Fedor Kudryashov, Ilya Kutepov, Roman Neustadter, Konstantin Rausch, Andrey Semenov, Igor Smolnikov, Mario Fernandes.

Midfielders:

Yuri Gazinskiy, Alexsandr Golovin, Alan Dzagoev, Alexsandr Erokhin, Yuri Zhirkov, Daler Kuzyaev, Roman Zobnin, Alexsandr Samedov, Anton Miranchuk, Alexsandr Tashaev, Denis Cheryshev.

Strikers

Artem Dzyuba, Aleksey Miranchuk, Fedor Smolov, Fedor Chalov.

Fixtures:

Russia vs Saudi Arabia – 14/06/18 – 16.00 GMT
Russia vs Egypt – 19/06/18 – 19.00 GMT
Uruguay vs Russia – 25/06/18 – 15.00 GMT

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More detailed accounts for all teams will be posted here at Sportbetting-Odds.com.

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