Get to know about teams drawn with Egypt: Russia

CAIRO – 1 December 2017: The World Cup draw put Egypt in Group A alongside, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia and the host nation, Russia.

Egypt plays their second game in the group stage against the host nation, Russia, on Monday June 19 at 8:00 p.m. (Cairo Time).

Profile: Russia

Russia participated in 10 World Cup tournaments between 1958 and 2014.

Russia’s best achievement in the World Cup was in 1966 in England when they qualified to the semi finals and came in fourth place.

Stanislav Cherchesov, former USSR and Russia international goalkeeper, was selected for the national squads at the 1994 and 2002 FIFA World Cups. Cherchesov was appointed coach in 2016. The former Dynamo Moscow and Legia Warsaw boss led the hosts at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup but he failed to lead them to qualify to the knock out stage.

The hosts are hoping that forward Fedor Smolov can recreate the goal he scored against New Zealand in their opening match of the FIFA Confederations Cup Russia 2017.

Igor Akinfeev, the six-time Russian title winner, has over 100 caps for his country. He is also the national team’s captain and will be an influential figure as they attempt to impress on home field.