Russia

Struggle to live up to past glories

Russian national soccer team poses before a match in Moscow 17 November 2003. From LtoR, top : Viktor Onopko, Sergey Ovchinnikov, Dmitry Bulykin, Sergey Ignashevich, Dmitry Sennikov, and Alexander Mostovoi. Top, From LtoR : Dmitry Loskov, Dmitry Alenichev, Alexey Smertin, Dmitry Sytchov and Vadim Evseev. AFP PHOTO YURI KADOBNOV

In another era they were known as the USSR, winners of the inaugural European Championships in 1960.

After a rebirth as a smaller nation Russia, shorn of talents from the Ukraine, Latvia etc, they have yet to shine at the final stages of recent tournaments.

Russia missed Euro 2000 but squeezed past Wales in the play-offs to make the last-16 that will do battle in Portugal in 2004.

As the USSR, CIS and now Russia they have previously made the cut for the finals stages of nine World Cups and six European Championships.

While they have never passed the quarter-finals on the world stage they have reached the final of the European championships four times, winning in 1960 and losing in 1964, 1972 and 1988.

The Easterners were disappointing at the 2002 World Cup in Asia and stuttered at the start of their Euro 2004 campaign before Georgy Yartsev took over as coach in August 2003.

At the time, they were third in the group behind Switzerland and Ireland after a shock defeat to Albania and a further loss to Georgia but quickly gained ground with a draw in Dublin and a 4-1 win over the Swiss.

Mix of youth and experience

Combined with a 3-1 win over Georgia, they squeezed into the play-offs at the expense of Ireland where they won a narrow and testy two-legged affair 1-0 over Wales on aggregate.

The draw for the group phase at Euro 2004 saw Russia avoid the major heavyweights but opponents Spain, hosts Portugal and Greece will nevertheless provide an interesting challenge.

The squad is rich in experience, featuring goalkeeper Sergei Ovchinnikov, veteran defender Viktor Onopko with well over 100 caps and other notable stalwarts in Vadim Yevseyev, Dmitri Sennikov and Sergei Ignashevich.

Alexei Smertin who recently signed for Chelsea but is now on loan at Premiership rivals Portsmouth is an ever present in midfield along with Egor Titov and Celta Vigo's ephemeral Alexander Mostovoi.

Up front Yartsev can call upon two far younger men in the form of St Petersburg's Alexander Kerzhakov and Marseille's Dmitri Sychev as well as the Dynamo Moscow giant Dmitri Bulykin at 1.93m, who bagged a hat-trick against the Swiss in only his second international.

Yartsev's greatest victory was to marry this youth and experience to reinstill confidence in the side, recalling Mostovoi, dropped by his predecessor Valery Gazzayev, and giving the captain's armband to Onopko.

Factfile on Russia

Population

148 million

Area

17.075 million km2

Capital

Moscow

Currency

Rouble

Federation

Russian Football Federation founded in 1912

Affiliated to FIFA

1912, re-affiliated in 1992

Affiliated to UEFA

1954

Registered players

Approx. 1.5 million

Colours

White shirts, blue shorts, red socks

Top clubs

Spartak Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow, CSKA Moscow, Saint-Petersburg

World Cup appearances

2 (1994, 2002) plus 7 as the USSR (1958, 1962, 1966, 1970, 1982, 1986, 1990)

World Cup honours

Quarter-finals (1958, 1962, 1970/USSR)

European Championship appearances

2 (1996, 2004) plus 5 as USSR (1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1988) and 1 as CIS (1992)

European Championship honours

Winner (1960/USSR), Finalist (1964, 1972, 1988/USSR), 4th (1968/USSR)

How they qualified

Finished runners-up in Group 10 with 14 points (4 wins, 2 draws, 2 defeats, 19 goals for, 12 against) behind Switzerland (15 pts) and ahead of Ireland (11pts), Albania (8ptsP and Georgia (7pts). Russia then qualified by beating Wales 1-0 on aggregate in two-legged play-offs

Key players

Viktor Onopko, Alexei Smertine, Dmitri Sytchev, Alexander Mostovoi

Coach

Georgy Yartsev