Published: 20 October, 2009, 21:23
Edited: 20 October, 2009, 22:06
In the first leg of their crucial World Cup qualifier, Russia will receive Slovenia at Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium. That’s according to Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, who made the announcement on Tuesday.
“We have thought over a few variants, including Moscow’s Cherkizovo stadium (Lokomotiv home arena). But finally we fixed on Luzhniki. Taking the weather into consideration, we decided not to take risks and opted for Luzhniki’s artificial pitch. After all, everything may happen on November 14 in terms of weather,” Mutko said, as quoted by Gazeta.ru.
Speaking about Russia’s prospects of getting the better of Slovenia, Mutko was convinced Russia must overcome Slovenia.
“Russia must beat any opponent from Pot 2 if we don’t want to return to the gloomy days of the past…..if we want to qualify for the World Cup and show good results there,” Mutko said.
Meanwhile, sport.fok.nl reports that Turkey’s football federation has offered Russia’s head coach, Guus Hiddink, to take over the helm of their national team. According to their information, Hiddink has turned down this proposal citing how he now needs to concentrate on the Russian team’s qualifiers. Besides, as Mutko confirmed on Tuesday, the Dutch specialist is currently in talks with the Russian football federation over his future contract.