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“Russia will rely on attacking capacity” – Hiddink
Published: 16 November, 2009, 16:53
Edited: 17 November, 2009, 10:19
Dinyar Bilyaletdinov (L) of Russia and Aleksander Radosavljevic of Slovenia (AFP Photo / Natalia Kolesnikova)
TAGS: Sport, Arshavin, Pavlyuchenko , Hiddink, Zhirkov, Football
Guus Hiddink says Russia will rely on their attacking skills on Wednesday. The Dutchman's team take a 2-1 advantage going into the second leg of their World Cup playoffs against Slovenia.
Russia were well on top of Slovenia for most of the first leg, but a very late goal from the visitors left the Slovenians with a real chance of qualifying for the World Cup.
The Russians are optimistic heading into the return match, however.
“Our mood – and we talked about it this morning – is of good quality, because we are still in the elite. We have to rely on our capacity to score goals, which we did almost in all games that we played internationally. So it is of big importance, but the players are aware of what we have to do,” Guus Hiddink told journalists on Monday.
The final training session before flying to Slovenia was a light one for those who started on Saturday. Andrey Arshavin and co. left the pitch just after a 20-minute warm-up.
Guus Hiddink insisted that he is not going to change the line-up significantly.
“All players have recovered, there are no injuries, so there won’t be many changes,” said Hiddink.
Meanwhile, Slovenia have a reputation of being a solid team at home.
Inspired by their famous fans, the team from the Balkans won four times and drew once in Maribor during the group stage.
Slovenia will have to overturn a one goal deficit, and Hiddink expects them to change their usual defensive tactics.
“They were defeated, and I cannot imagine they will only defend in their home game,” Hiddink believes.
With a home win behind them, Russia enter Wednesday's game as slight favourites, but they certainly don't take their World Cup chance for granted. Slovenia have already shown that, when backed into a corner, they should not be underestimated.
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We are in the dangerous 1 0 scenario here, because of the away goal by Slovenia. Therefore the only real option is to go all out to score goals. To try to sit on a goal less draw is just a recipe for trouble, because of the possibility of a late goal again. So Guus as always is spot on here, we need go at them from the off, to try to get goals, because those away goals will count well in a loss situation, if it comes to that. We can look at this game as a one off qualifier on hostile turf. We should think how professionally Germany came to us facing the exact same task and succeeded. So with this is mind we need to go for Goals, whilst not being too wild by leaving holes at the back. This is going to be one difficult exciting match, let's at least go all out to get those goals, then let's see where we are in the end. Go Russia!, Go for Goals.
I totally agree with you here. Of course it is a very generic analysis to the situation. But, still Russia sould go for goals, nonetheless. GO RUSSIA!!!