C-Cup Preview: Russia
This will be the last set of competitive games for Russia before the World Cup kicks off in earnest in the summer of 2018.
Stanislav Cherchesov took over the Sbornaya after a poor showing at the 2016 European Championships in France.
Cherchesov has bloodied a few new players, but results have been far from convincing. The Sbornaya drew Turkey 0-0 in Cherchesov’s first match, and then beat Ghana 1-0. The Russian national team then lost in spectacular fashion to Costa Rica (3-4), and then completely embarrassed itself when they lost 2-1 to Qatar. The Sbornaya redeemed themselves somewhat when they beat Romania 1-0 in their latest friendly. The matches highlighted the fact that that Cherchesov still has a mountain to climb when it comes to building a team that can be competitive at the 2018 World Cup.
Players to watch out for:
Zenit’s forward Artem Dzyuba is the squad’s biggest star. The sizeable Russian striker has often been described as Russia’s Zlatan Ibrahimović but, while the two share some physical traits, comparing Dzyuba to Ibrahimović would do the Swedish star striker some disservice.
Other players to look out for include Fedor Smolov, who won the goal-scoring title last season, and this year has scored nine goals in nine games leading the goal-scoring race once again.
Also, look out for Aleksandr Kokorin, who has revived his career under new Zenit coach Mircea Lucescu, and CSKA Moscow midfielder Alan Dzagoev.
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