A country anxiously awaits with baited breath, a proud country that gave birth to the sport of football just few centuries ago, a country without a major tournament win for exactly fifty years, a country with a new, young and exciting team, a team of underdogs, a team capable of causing an upset on the highest of stages, a team waiting to finally bring football back home to the most passionate fans in the world.
So many major tournaments have passed now without our national side really challenging towards the later stages of the competitions and that has to change at Euro 2016. With the youngest squad at the European Championships in France, an average age of just 25, we possess a sense of intrigue within our team going into this tournament, an aspect that hasn’t occurred for a long time. For so long our past squads have been largely similar. Gerrard, Lampard, Terry, Rooney. Don’t get me wrong, our country has produced so many world class players in recent times but it’s nice to go into a tournament with a squad that is largely yet to be fully decided on by fans and media alike. In recent tournaments the team selection has felt static to me; it’s felt like certain players were going not on merit and on form but almost due to their name and image which shouldn’t be the case.
We don’t possess just one team, the possibilities seem endless with this squad and even though we have had stronger sides in the past, it’s nice to go into a tournament without the intense media pressure of the South Africa World Cup of 2010, of the European campaign of 2012 and so on. Everything seems much more relaxed this time around and I think that will play to the teams and Roy Hodgson’s advantage come kick off in Marseille on Saturday night against Russia.
There’s not too much expectation on this current England squad and with the misery of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where we didn’t even win a match, there’s a sense of ‘it can’t get any worse than last time out’.
Despite winning 10 out of 10 in Euro 2016 qualification, the only country to do so during that process, there’s a feeling that we’re the underdogs to some extent this time around and much like the fairy tale story of Leicester City winning the Premier League this season, anything can be achieved if everyone in our team works towards it.
A bit about our opponents
Currently ranked 27th in the world, Russia possess a strong and experienced squad whom shouldn’t be underestimated by their Euro 2016 Group B opponents. Reaching the last three European Championships, Russia have been strong in recent tournaments and enjoyed a run to the semi-final stage of the Euros as recently as 2008 when they were ranked 3rd in the world. In qualifying the 2018 World Cup hosts finished second to Austria in Group G and pushed Sweden into third place. In short Russia cannot be underestimated.
In defence, the side managed by Leonid Slutski are very strong and certainly have the experience. Russia’s likely back four and goalkeeper boast an impressive 370 international caps between them, a far cry from the 147 international caps that the probable England backline possess. However with Jamie Vardy and Raheem Sterling among other English players running at their back line, Russia could crumble. Experience comes with age but unfortunately age comes with an obvious lack of pace and when you have a 36 year old centre back partnered with a 33 year old, you could struggle to handle and deal with the faster players in an opposing team. England need to exploit this weakness if they’re to get anything for this opening match in Group B.
If you were to choose an area of the field where Russia look weakest it would be in the heart of their midfield in my opinion. Unfortunately for them and luckily for us, two of their key midfielders will be out of Euro 2016 due to injury. Both Igor Denisov and Alan Dzagoev have sustained recent injury setbacks meaning that the influential pair will miss out on the England match and potentially the whole tournament in France. To be honest, if you compare the two midfields England should have too much quality for Russia to handle on Saturday evening.
It must be said that Russia do look dangerous going forward however. In strikers Aleksandr Kokorin and Artyom Dzyuba Russia possess two in form strikers that have great records both domestically this term and overall at the international level. A huge decision was made prior to Euro 2016 though as experienced forward and record top scorer Aleksandr Kerzhakov was left out of the country’s 23 man squad, could their management come to regret that call?
If I were a betting man I’d take Russia to finish second in Group B ahead of both Slovakia and Wales as I believe they have a better overall team with more squad depth at their disposal.
Ones to watch for Russia
In their 23 man squad at Euro 2016 Russia have three very dangerous attackers in their squad in Oleg Shatov, Aleksandr Kokorin and Artem Dzyuba. All three play for Russian Premier League side Zenit St Petersburg and all three will have to be dealt with sufficiently by England’s defensive line. All three attackers have had solid and consistent seasons for their respective club both in the league and also in the Champions League.
Oleg Shatov
Oleg Shatov is an exciting, skilful and pacey winger who plays domestically for Russian side Zenit St Petersburg. This season the wide midfielder netted 10 times for Zenit in all competitions and assisted on 9 occasions in his 33 first team appearances.
Under the guidance of former Tottenham boss André Villas-Boas at Zenit, Shatov has become an exciting player to watch in the Russian league and has impressed with his creativity both in the league but also during his sides Champions League campaign, where the Russian club topped their group before being knocked out in the last-16 by Portuguese side Benfica.
At the international level for Russia Oleg Shatov has 21 caps, scoring twice in those appearances.
Artem Dzyuba
Another one of Russia’s main talismen goes by the name of Artem Dzyuba. The powerful forward, who can play as an effective target man standing at 6 ft 5 in, scored an impressive 8 goals during the qualification process for Russia.
The 27 year old forward, another player with Russian side Zenit St Petersburg, possesses the perfect blend of strength and skill and if the ball drops for him in the box, he’s likely to finish off the chance with his goal scoring record for both club and country reflecting that. For Zenit this season he’s bagged 23 goals in a total of 44 appearances whilst during his time with the Russian first team he’s gained 18 caps, scoring 9 times.
Aleksandr Kokorin
With 52 goals in 217 appearances in the Russian Premier League in total, Alexsandr Kokorin is another Russian striker with a real eye for goal. The striker, heavily linked with a move to the Emirates Stadium and Arsenal back in the January transfer window, has natural goal scoring ability. His playing style is a lot like that of England striker Harry Kane however perhaps with a little more pace but a little less overall world class ability.
With 38 caps for Russia’s first team Alexsandr Kokorin now has a decent amount of experience at the highest international level under his belt and with 12 goals to his name so far, England need to keep an eye on the pacey forward on Saturday night in Marseille.
Prediction
This fixture will prove to be trickier than what most England fans are expecting in my opinion. Russia are a strong, no-nonsense team that will really test our squads resolve this coming Saturday evening. Expect a close, low scoring match with few clear cut chances between the two sides however I would back England to grind out the win.
England need to start this tournament positively as in recent years we’ve either drawn or lost our first match in major competitions and have instantly put ourselves on the back foot due to it. A loss would be disastrous, a draw would be just about acceptable however we need to aspire to be beating teams like Russia, Slovakia and Wales if we are to be genuine contenders for the trophy.
My pick would be for England to edge out Russia and secure a 1-0 win.
How far can England go?
According to the bookies, we can go far in this year’s European Championships. If you go with betting site Sky Bet you will find that England are fourth favourites to win the whole tournament behind only France, Germany and Spain.
For me, quarter finals must be the minimum. With the structure of the Euros changing this year as more teams are in France for the tournament, England should be comfortable in making the last 8 barring a disaster. Looking at the tournament tree if we finish top of Group B, which we most certainly should, we would play the runners up of Group A whom are likely to be Switzerland, Romania or Albania if France win that group which is also extremely likely. If that was the case our first major test would really come in the quarter finals as we would face Belgium if everything went to plan for both countries.
With less media pressure this time around on the England team, some new and exciting players in the squad and a favourable draw for our national side, we should do reasonably well at Euro 2016 and should be aiming for the quarter finals as a minimum in my opinion.
Fifty years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming!