World Cup 2018 Russia team profile: How they qualified, star man, World Cup record, fixtures

Russia qualified as hosts, which, considering their travails on the pitch was probably the only they were making this edition of the tournament. Team Russia were pretty abject at the 2014 tournament, losing one and drawing two after qualifying impressively enough. They have trended downwards since.

The 28-year-old, who briefly turned out for Feyenoord in 2011, has been prolific since moving to the Krasnodar Stadium in 2015, where he has hit 52 goals in 73 league games.

He has amassed 12 goals in 31 appearances for the national team, and the former Dynamo Moscow forward is expected to make a big-money European move post tournament.

CSKA manager Viktor Goncharenko has drawn comparisons between Aleksandr Golovin and Paul Pogba while Arsene Wenger called him - alongside with Alan Dzagoev - the best player in Russia.

He has been on the radar of a host of European powers since he won the European U-17 Championship in 2013, with Manchester United the latest side to show an interest in the attacking midfielder, who combines a keen eye for a pass with an ability to carry the ball at pace.

Stanislav Cherchesov was named Russia coach in 2016, and has a pretty shoddy win percentage of 26.32 coming into the tournament. A long-standing dispute with Igor Denisov has seen the holding midfielder, who captained Lokomotiv Moscow to the Russian Premier League, jettisoned from the squad.

The 34-year-old and Cherchesov are not on speaking terms after the pair fell out while the latter was manager of Dinamo Moscow, after the former called his boss a clown.

Their best performance, when they played as the USSR, came at the 1966 World Cup where they finished fourth, with the legendary Lev Yashin in goal. However, as the Russian Federation, they have not fared as well, qualifying for the World Cup three times since 1994 but never progressing beyond the Group Stage.

This is a Russian side in transition. Truth be told, to get out of the group would be an achievement for a group of players shy on quality.