Guus Hiddink will rue the loss of playmaker Andrei Arshavin for the first two games. Photograph: Epsilon/Getty Images

If there’s one country more burdened by under-achievement (from a football perspective) than England, it’s Russia. The Soviet Union won the inaugural European Championship in 1960, but after that one World Cup semi-final and one European Championship final represent a poor harvest for the country that effectively invented modern football when Viktor Maslov pioneered systematised pressing at Dynamo Kyiv in the 1960s.Since fragmentation, the story has been even worse, with the seven major tournaments since they started competing as Russia yielding three first-round exits and four failures to qualify. Yegor Titov, the former Russia captain, has spoken of the sense of discomfit he feels every time he leaves the motherland, but the old inferiority complexes surely no longer pertain in Vladimir Putin’s modern thrusting nation. After all, within the last month, a Russian club has lifted the Uefa Cup, while Russia have won the world ice-hockey championship and Eurovision Song Contest.Equally, it could be argued that Guus Hiddink’s main achievement as coach has been to tackle the fear of failure that has haunted the squad. Players are encouraged to swear in training and, on the first day of get-togethers, to joke about each other’s club form. The forward Roman Pavlyuchenko, whose arrival as a substitute so unsettled England in Moscow, says that players now look forward to national matches, whereas previously they could seem a bit of a chore. However, the defeat in Israel and the scrappy win over Andorra with which they stumbled over the line thanks to England’s defeat at home to Croatia, suggests the ability to turn it on when it matters should not be taken for granted.After all the hype that surrounded his arrival, Hiddink’s reign actually began poorly, with home draws in their first two qualifiers against Croatia and Israel. An away win in Macedonia, though, began to convince the doubters, less because of the 2-0 margin than because of the style of the victory, with seven attacking players used in a 3-5-2. That has remained the Hiddink mode ever since, and at times, as in that last 20 minutes against England in Moscow when they poured forward in red waves, it can be breathtaking.They are also, though, distinctly shaky at the back, something that is to do with personnel as much as system. Having the outstanding young goalkeeper, Igor Akinfeev, back from a serious knee injury will help, but not as much as Hiddink’s recognition that the CSKA triumvirate of Sergei Ignashevich and the Berezutsky twins are probably inch-for-inch the worst headers of a ball in history. The recent elevation to the squad of Zenit’s Roman Shirokov, himself a converted attacking midfielder, can only be a good thing.The prevalence of teams deploying only one central forward (in this group, both Spain and Greece will) has rendered 3-5-2 all but obsolete, for there is no point having a libero and two markers if there is only one striker to mark. To counter that, Russia will effectively play on a pivot, with the rapid Aleksandr Anyukov dropping in at full-back as required and the other three shuffling across. It could be argued that Hiddink’s chosen formation needlessly over-complicates things, but on the other hand Russia have vast reserves of technically-gifted midfielders, and 3-5-2 is a way of using as many as possible.Anyukov is quick, but he is nothing compared to Vladimir Bystrov, who is likely to operate on the other flank (although there is also the talented but inconsistent Yuri Zhirkov to be considered). In the middle, Konstantin Zyryanov, Russia’s player of the year for 2007, is fairly assured of his place as a steadying influence, with the recalled Sergei Semak – in the form of his life for league-leaders Rubin Kazan and named as captain in the recent friendly against Serbia – likely to operate alongside him. Lokomotiv’s Diniyar Bilyaletdinov will probably be given the more advanced central midfield role, leaving Dmitri Torbinsky and Igor Semshov as options on the bench.Up front the big problem is that Andrei Arshavin, man of the match in the Uefa Cup final, is suspended for the opening two games after stupidly being sent off against Andorra in the final qualifier. His Zenit team-mate Pavel Pobregnyak, meanwhile, is a doubt with a knee injury. The slightly more mobile Pavlyuchenko would probably have been handed the target-man’s brief ahead of Pogrebynak anyway, but Arshavin’s probable replacement, Dmitri Sychev, gifted as he is, is not a like-for-like deputy.Russia could be out before their best player even takes the field, but if they are not, there is just a chance that they could add to what Putin has already termed Russian sport’s golden age. It’s a slim chance admittedly, but even making it through the groups would be a new best since fragmentation.

About this articleCloseThis article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Tuesday June 03 2008. It was last updated at 11:16 on June 04 2008.

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