Preview IRL-RUS: Russia Look to Edge Closer to Poland and Ukraine

October 8th, 2010 | by: nick | Comments(1)

Hello all Russian football fans. I do not have much time to write an extensive preview. Instead I’ll just say a few words about the Russia Ireland game taking place in Dublin today.

Russia
Russia and Ireland met in the Euro 2004 qualifiers in a group which also included Switzerland. They go into today’s game knowing that a win will put them even with Slovakia who lost to Armenia 3-1 earlier this afternoon. It’s pretty obvious Dick Advocaat’s team will aim for nothing less than a win in order to keep their campaign on track. A loss today will leave Russia scrambling for the rest of the campaign. Russia have also lost Roman Pavlyuchenko but Advocaat promptly called up Aleksander Bukharov as a replacement. Bukharov is a tall striker who adds a bit of aerial advantage in addition to Pogrebnyak.

Ireland
Ireland go into this game knowing Russia cost them a ticket to Portugal six years ago. But I think this Irish team are much better than that of 2003. I think that Ireland have a bit of firepower like Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle. Giovanni Trappatoni will also look to build on Ireland’s decent campaign into South Africa which ended in controversy. He has also been greatly responsible for Irelands improvement over the last two years.

Prediction: IRL 1-1 RUS
I think that both Russia and Ireland are pretty evenly matched and the game is likely to end in a draw.

This is all I have time for today, I will write about my impressions on the game at the weekend.