The Russians are back in the World Cup after a long hiatus of 12 years with Fabio Capello under the helm and will be attempting to make the most of their appearance in this Brazil edition. They are favorites to progress into the Last-16 along with Belgium. Capello expects to take the hosts of the next edition of the World Cup to the final stages just like he did with England. While, the South Koreans will try to put up a better fight and hope to spoil whatever chances Russia has. This is their eighth consecutive World Cup qualification with a reputation of having reached the semi-finals back in 2002 but this time around they come into the tournament having lost 4 of their last 5 matches which makes this a tough outing for them.
Players to look out for:
Alan Dzagoev will be heaped with the responsibility to take care of the midfield in the absence of Captain Roman Shirokov while Pavel Mogilevets will take care of his position. Striker Alexander Kokorin will be under watch as he is expected to put his country ahead. Among the Koreans, Park Chu-Young and Ki Sung-Yeung will be the prospects to look for.
Teams head-to-head:The two teams have played just one match between them with Russia winning the tie by 1-0.
Probable line-ups:
Russia (4-2-3-1): Akinveev; Anyukov, Ignashevich, Berezutskiy, Kombarov; Denisov, Shirokov; Samedov, Zhirkov, Dzagoev; Kerzhakov.
South Korea (4-2-3-1): Jung Sung-ryong; Lee Yong, Hong Jeong-ho, Kim Young-gwon, Kim Chang-soo; Park Jong-woo, Ki Sung-yeung; Lee Chung-yong, Koo Ja-cheol, Son Heung-min; Park Chu-young.
Predictions: South Korea has a very poor defense and aren’t likely to improve which suggests that Russia has better chances in front of goal.
Final Score Predictions: Russia 1- 0 South Korea
Match timings: 3:30 Am IST
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