Leonid Slutsky has congratulated the Russian national team for winning all three World Cup qualifiers until now and has commented on http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alan-Dzagoev-c4249’s role in the team
The Russian national team embarked a terrific start to the World Cup qualifying rounds after winning back-to-back group stage games against Northern Ireland, Israel and the group favourites, Portugal, recently.
As things stand, they are leading the group table with nine points and Portugal, being their closest rival, have now dropped down to the second-spot after suffering a closely contested defeat against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Fabio-c13152 Capello’s men at Luzhniki
stadium on Friday.
However, CSKA Moscow’s Leonid Slutsky has insisted that the Euro 2008 semi-finalists should not underestimate their next opponent in the competition, saying that Russia might find it difficult to claim all three points against
Azerbaijan on Tuesday.
“I do not think our team is too good to win every match as we played against Portugal defensively. However, our matches against Israel and Northern Ireland proved that we can play better football. Everyone is now waiting for us
to reach the later stages at World Cup.”
“I admire Russia’s big win against Portugal but they have a long way to go in the tournament. I think fans will play a massive role again as the stadium is expected to be full by the time. I'm sure our players have enough class
and experience to cope with Azerbaijan.” The Russian Cup winner was quoted as saying.
Slutsky admitted that Russia have a decent chance to retain the top-spot on their respective group table if they will extend their decent run in the tournament by winning the next match against the Milli Komanda.
CSKA’s http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alan-c4244 Dzagoev was an unused substitute during Russia’s 1-0 win against the Navigators. Slutsky revealed that the attacking midfielder is struggling to get more playing time on the pitch as Capello ranks him below Zenit St.
Petersburg’s http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roman-Shirokov-c31645.
Dzagoev, who was the star performer for his side during Euro 2008 as the 22-year-old helped the team by scoring 4 goals in the European tournament, has not played since Russia’s 2-0 win against the Irish team.
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