Founded: 1912 UEFA Affiliated: 1992 EURO Appearances: 3 EURO Titles: 0 The superb display of Zenit St Petersburg in the UEFA Cup this season could offer some buoyancy to Guus Hiddink's side this summer. Zenit, managed by another Dutchman, Dick Advocat, won the competition impressively, brushing aside the likes of Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen in the process. Hiddink is adamant that the victory could be useful for the national team, which includes a number of key players from Zenit. "The win was a huge boost for all Russian football but more importantly, it showed our young team nothing is impossible," he said. "If you believe in yourself, have a solid strategy, play aggressive attacking football and not have 10 men behind the ball, then you can overcome even the most improbable odds." Russia will compete in an almost replica group of the 2004 finals Group A in Portugal, as they will challenge holders Greece, Spain and Sweden. History Russia's pedigree in football is largely dependant on their achievements under the former Soviet Union (USSR). USSR were crowned champions of the inaugural European championship in 1960. They won the runner-up place on three other occasions. The likes of Lev Yashin, Valentin Ivanov, Oleg Blokhin and Oleg Protasov are among those who made a name for the former USSR in the history of football. Goalkeeper Yashin, who was a member of the EURO winning-team, represented USSR in three World Cup finals and is regarded as one of the best ever to stand between the sticks.
Hiddink His heir, Rinat Dasaev, was also considered one of the best goalkeepers in the world during the 1980s, but only managed to win second place in the 1988 tournament. Russia then entered the competition under the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1992, two years after the fall of the Soviet Union, but were axed from the group stage. Following their UEFA affiliation in 1992, the Russians have failed to go beyond the first round in any of their recent Euro appearances, following the break up of the Soviet Union. In the same manner, Russia's performance in the World Cup has not been impressive, as they were eliminated from the first round in the 1994 and 2002 finals. Coach: Guus Hiddink (Dutch) Hiddink is an expert at leading national teams in top competitions, having managed three different nations in the last three World Cup finals. His previous experiences with Holland, South Korea and Australia were fairly impressive. Hiddink led his native Holland to the 1998 World Cup semi-finals, before losing the third-place playoff to Croatia, four years later he achieved the same feat with South Korea. The Dutchman took the host nation that has never gone beyond the first round at the time to a historic fourth place on home soil. The 61-year-old then helped Australia reach the 2006 World Cup finals for the first time in 32 years, as he guided the Socceroos to the second round, only to be eliminated by eventual champions Italy. Apart from that, Hiddink's achievements at club level are limited to his honors with PSV Eindhoven, where he won six Eredivisie titles, but he coached some of Europe's top clubs like Real Madrid, Valencia and Fenerbahce. The well-traveled coach is multilingual. He speaks Dutch, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. He also speaks basic Italian and is learning Russian. Tactics Hiddink has opted to depend on a number of young players and his unpopular 3-5-2 formation that he rarely changes. If fit, Igor Akinfeev is Russia's first-choice goalkeeper, but Vladimir Gubalov deputized in many games in the qualifiers. Sergei Ignashevich and twin brothers Vasili Berezutski and Alexei Berezutski considered as key figures in the backli Star Player - Andrei Arshavin
