Last Saturday when Russia clashed against England in Marseille, the violent confrontations between Russian and English hooligans triggered UEFA's reaction on the disciplinary level. First of all, the Russian federation has been fined with €150,000. But the real kicker is the promise, that if one more incident takes place the Russian team will be disqualified from the tournament for good without letting them play a single game further.
With this in the air, all the Russian players have left, is to focus on the next match against Slovakia and pray for the fans to behave. Striker Artem Dzyuba spoke to UEFA.com about their chances for this next match and how they did during the last one: "Our defence was well organized but not everything worked in attack – we were a bit disjointed. A lot of balls got kicked out of play. But it was the first match and a difficult one. At times we held on to the ball really well. I think if we add 20-30 per cent in attack, there will be more goals and we'll create more chances."
On the Slovakian side, skipper Marek Hamsik also talked about their last match and how they did against a team that has Gareth Bale with them: "I thought I'd scored," he admitted. "Straight after that, Gareth Bale showed his qualities with a free-kick goal. We dominated in the second half but couldn't score a second. We pressured Wales and created several chances. I don't know if we can talk about luck for Wales, but it was above all a balanced encounter."
Possible lineups:
Russia: Akinfeev, Smolnikov, Berezutski, Ignashevich, Schennikov, Neustadter, Golovin, Kokorin, Shatov, Smolov, Dzyuba.
Slovakia: Kozacik, Pekarik, Skrtel, Durica, Svento, Kucka, Hrosovsky, Mak, Hamsik, Weiss, Duris.
Photo credit: Team Russia