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 Russia
Russia squeaked into the Euro 2008 finals
by the skin of their teeth, riding their luck all the way to the final
1-0 win against Andorra which coupled with England's 3-2 loss to Croatia
at Wembley was enough to put the Russians through at England's expense.
Currently ranked 25th in the FIFA world rankings the Russians
might consider themselves lucky to have qualified ahead of the 11th
placed British, but results do not lie.
In Gus Hiddink the Russians have a coach
with a wealth of club and international experience who will be looking
to get the most from his young squad and with Zenit St Petersburg's
UEFA Cup win his mainly domestic based players will have a belief in
them that something special can happen. Can Russia be the surprise package
of the Euro 2008 Championships and emulate the amazing run that current
champions Greece showed in Euro 2004? Only time will tell.
Russian Euro 2008 squad:
Goalkeepers:
Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow),
Vyacheslav Malafeev (Zenit St Petersburg),
Vladimir Gaboulov (Amkar Perm)
Defenders:
Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow),
Alexei Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow),
Vasily Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow),
Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St Petersburg),
Denis Kolodin (Dynamo Moscow),
Renat Yanbaev (Lokomotiv Moscow)
Midfielders:
Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (Lokomotiv Moscow),
Yuri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow),
Igor Semshov (Dynamo Moscow),
Dmitry Torbinsky (Lokomotiv Moscow),
Vladimir Bystrov (Spartak Moscow),
Konstantin Zyryanov (Zenit St Petersburg),
Roman Shirokov (Zenit St Petersburg),
Sergei Semak (Rubin Kazan),
Alexander Pavlenko (Spartak Moscow),
Oleg Ivanov (Krylya Sovietov Samara)
Forwards:
Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St Petersburg),
Pavel Pogrebnyak (Zenit St Petersburg),
Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow),
Dmitry Sychev (Lokomotiv Moscow),
Roman Adamov (FC Moscow),
Ivan Saenko (Nurnberg).
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