Russia 23-man world cup 2018 squad:

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Gabulov (Club Brugges), Andrey Lunev (Zenit St. Petersburg)

Defenders: Vladimir Granat (Rubin Kazan), Fyodor Kudryashov (Rubin Kazan), Ilya Kutepov (Spartak Moscow), Andrey Semyonov (Akhmat Grozny), Igor Smolnikov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Mario Fernandes (CSKA Moscow), Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow)

Midfielders: Yuri Gazinsky (Krasnodar), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow), Aleksandr Golovin (CSKA Moscow), Aleksandr Erokhin (Zenit St. Petersburg), Yuri Zhirkov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Daler Kuzyaev (Zenit St. Petersburg), Roman Zobnin (Spartak Moscow), Alexander Samedov (Spartak Moscow), Anton Miranchuk (Lokomotiv Moscow), Denis Cheryshev (Villarreal)

Forwards: Artem Dzyuba (Arsenal Tula), Alexei Miranchuk (Lokomotiv Moscow), Fyodor Smolov (Krasnodar)

Russia World Cup 2018 fixtures:

Russia – Saudi Arabia (14 June), Moscow
Russia – Egypt (19 June), Saint Petersburg
Uruguay – Russia (25 June), Samara

The host of this year’s World Cup was drawn in what has been described by many as the easiest group in the long history of sports’ most watched competition. Doubts about whether World Cup draws are as random as we are led to believe they are have existed for a long time. If this doesn’t confirm them, I don’t know what does. After the controversy that led to Russia being awarded the rights to organize this event, it was only logical that FIFA would not allow the money spent go to waste. A World Cup loses its allure when a host is eliminated early. Therefore, FIFA and the Russian Football Federation did everything in their power to make sure that doesn’t happen, which doesn’t mean it won’t.

Source: gennext.broncolor.com

The days of the USSR are long gone. The modern history of Russian football (since 1992) is underwhelming to say the least. Despite qualifying for the last three big summer events (Euro 2016, World Cup 2014 and Euro 2012), Russia failed to get past the group stage on each occasion. Lack of investment in youth levels combined with extreme spending for foreign stars have degraded the national football team significantly. The 35-year-old Berezutski twins finally quit “Sbornaya”, while 39-year-old Sergei Ignashevich is still here. He might even start, considering the two center backs who emerged as quality options and were supposed to be counted on the most, Viktor Vasin and Georgi Dzhikiya, got injured and will miss the show. In that regard, Russia was rather unlucky. It finally found two potential replacements who can handle the duties in an always vulnerable defense and both of them got hurt.

The bad luck extended its grasp to the only real goal threat Russia has at the moment – Aleksandr Kokorin. He suffered a serious knee injury back in March, thus leaving Stanislav Cherchesov with only two central forwards, Smolov and Dzyuba. None of them are nearly as good as Kokorin. What’s left is a Russian football team that will rely on experience, fan support and one young talent named Aleksandr Golovin. It might be enough to avoid embarrassment, but I’m afraid it won’t be enough for much more than that.