World Cup 2018 Preview: Russia

Russia obviously qualified for World Cup 2018 via way of hosting the tournament, but what is their pedigree? Well, it's slightly complicated due to the fact that Russia was known as the Soviet Union for seven of the eleven championships entered, managing to finish in fourth place during the 1966 World Cup in England, having lost to Portugal in the third-place playoff. As Russia, they have not progressed beyond the group stage three times and failing to qualify twice.

The Soviet Union has had some very good players over the years. Oleg Blokhin stands above them all, with 42 goals from 112 caps, and I'm sure people will remember the likes of Lev Yashin, Oleg Kuznetsov and Sergei Aleinikov. In their current state, Sergei Ignashevich leads the way on 122 caps, with the 38-year-old central defender expected to play some part in what will be his second World Cup, having being called up to replace the injured Ruslan Kambolov.

Russia is coached by Stanislav Cherchesov, who was appointed in August of 2016. Cherchesov played 39 times for his country, and was also named in the 1994 and 2002 World Cup squads. The team is captained by Igor Akinfeev, the 32-year-old who has played all his career with CSKA Moscow. Only two of the squad play outside of Russia — Denis Cheryshev for Villarreal in Spain, and Vladimir Gabulov for Belgium's Club Brugge.

In a group that also contains Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Uruguay, I would expect Russia to struggle a little. They are the lowest-ranked country in the World Cup, and I can't see where enough points to get out of the group are going to come from. Uruguay are clear favourites to win the group, and rightly so. But Egypt — spearheaded by Liverpool's Mohamed Salah — could be one of the surprises of the tournament. There isn't much hope for Saudi Arabia, so maybe that is where Russia could guarantee three points and sneak a draw with Uruguay or Egypt, boosting their chances of progression, but it's a tough ask for the hosts to get out of this group.

Russia's main problem will be goals. The squad of 23 boasts just 56 goals between them, which is not a good return. Fyodor Smokov is the country's current leading goalscorer with 12 in 32 games, followed by Artem Dzyuba (11 in 23), and Alan Dzagoev (9 in 57). Igor Akinfeev will need to be at his very best to keep out the likes of Uruguay's Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez, as well as Egypt's previously-mentioned Salah (if fit).

Forgetting all of that, and assuming Russia does indeed qualify from the group stages, it's only Portugal, Spain, Morocco, or Iran next. OK, so you may as well take out the latter two because we already know which two qualify without even playing a game. And after that, it will be all over by the mighty boots of Cristiano Ronaldo or David Silva. I have to feel for Stanislav Cherchesov, because he's on a hiding to nothing. The Russian Football Union expects a semi-final place from their coach, and plenty of people will be eating their hats if he manages to achieve that with the squad he has. The last game Russia won was a friendly against South Korea in October of 2017, where they ran out 4-2 victors. Seven games have followed with four defeats and three draws, albeit three of those defeats were against quality opposition in Brazil, Argentina and France.

I don't think Russia will finish with the worst record of World Cup 2018, but let's see how they fare against Saudi Arabia first, and take it from there.

Russia World Cup 2018 fixtures:

• 14 June v Saudi Arabia at Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow
• 19 Jun v Egypt at Krestovsky Stadium, Saint Petersburg
• 25 Jun v Uruguay at Cosmos Arena, Samara