EURO 2008 INFO

Russia is a great nation of football, but it still has to prove his greatness on the ground. A European Championships (1960, labeling the Soviet Union) and a UEFA Cup (CSKA Moscow in 2005) form a meagre spoils for a country of 142 million people, whose passion for soccer remained constant during a century of political and social upheavals.

In the communist era, disconcerting failures of the national team are often placed on the account of a strong state interference. But even after the end of the Cold War, the irregularity of the team frustrates supporters. At Euro 2004, Russia won a match - against the future champion, Greece - but only after being eliminated in the wake of two defeats in his first two matches.

An unprecedented optimism

Yet the Russian football is suddenly taken an unprecedented optimism. Could this be due to the presence of Guus Hiddink, the coach who led South Korea and Australia to excel at the World Cups of 2002 and 2006? Although there are only two Russians throughout the Top 10 of the index performance Castrol, supporters expect to see the miracle happen again this summer, especially since the draw - placing them face Sweden, Spain and Greece - has been quite favourable.

"We have totally changed the game Russian," said Hiddink. "Their style was outdated and we modernized it, but the team still had much to learn. "

Russian Ronaldinho

Although Russia has conceded only seven goals in qualifying, his defense is not shown particularly strong - England had no problem with the bypass at Wembley - while the team still s'habituait Hiddink to 3-4-1-2. Against England in Moscow, she began the match with the aim to frustrate the opponent and conceded a goal but in the second half, played with intelligence, passion and technique while it retains possession while attacking in a impressive number of angles.

Russia does not count on a single machine goals. Dmitri Sychev (nicknamed at the Russian Michael Owen), Roman Pavlyuchenko (which doubled sent England to oblivion in Moscow), Alexander Kerzhakov and Andrei Arshavin all show an average of a goal every three matches. Arshavin, Russian footballer of the year 2006, also has to his credit four assists during qualifications. The efforts of the young man-26 years enable it to win the highest ranking among the Russian attackers based on the CPI with a 70th place overall and 12nd place in the list of scorers.

The preferred place of the rising star, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, is just behind the attackers, but its tactical intelligence allows him to shine just as much in the center and on the left wing. Its flexibility and its ability to attack made him one of the few stars of the Russian classification CPI - it is the 4th in the classification of environments on the ground and took the 34th spot overall - just one place behind his compatriot best classified, the keeper Igor Akinfeev.

The creative talent and keys spectacular Yuri Zhirkov, winger exuberant and cunning of CSKA Moscow, suggest that the nickname of "Russian" Ronaldinho not to be too far from reality.

Arshavin, Bilyaletdinov, Kerzhakov, Pavlyuchenko, Sychev and Zhirkov all around 25 years old and are the stars of a team that Hiddink built for the future. The prospects for Russia - to Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010 - have not been so good since the days of the great Lev Yashin ago half a century.