The Russia national football team is the national football team of Russia and is controlled by the Football Union of Russia.

Russia qualified for two World Cups (1994, 2002) and three European Championships (1996, 2004, 2008), but failed to get beyond the first round on first two occasions.

FIFA considers the Russia national team the direct descendant of the CIS and USSR national teams.

After the break up of the Soviet Union, Russia played its first international match against Mexico on August 16, 1992 winning 2-0 with a team of former USSR players from the other republics.

In the Qualification Round,Russia got the second place under Croatia in Group E.

And now they will struggle in Group D against Sweeden, Greece and Spania.First match will be 10 June 2008 at 18:00 against Spain, on Tivoli Neu - Innsbruck stadium.

Russian Team Squad

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev, Dmitri Borodin, Vladimir Gabulov,Vyacheslav Malafeev, Anton Shunin

Defenders: Aleksandr Anyukov, Vasili Berezutski, Aleksei Berezutski, Vadim Evseev,Sergei Ignashevich, Denis Kolodin, Roman Shirokov,Roman Shishkin, Sergei Yefimov

Midfielders: Evgeni Aldonin, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Viktor Budyanski, Vladimir Bystrov, Igor Denisov, Marat Izmailov, Vladislav Radimov, Aleksei Rebko, Igor Semshov, Aleksei Smertin, Yegor Titov, Dmitri Torbinskiy, Yuri Zhirkov, Konstantin Zyrianov

Forwards: Andrei Arshavin, Aleksandr Kerzhakov, Roman Pavlyuchenko,Pavel Pogrebnyak, Ivan Saenko, Evgeni Savin, Dmitri Sychev

Guus Hiddink - Manager Of Russian National Football Team

Guus Hiddink (born 8 November 1946 in Varsseveld) is a Dutch football manager. He managed PSV Eindhoven between 2002-2006. Throughout his entire managerial career, he is best recognised for winning the treble with PSV Eindhoven, leading South Korea to a 4th place finish in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, managing the Netherlands into the same position in the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, leading Australia to the second round of the 2006 FIFA World Cup—their first appearance in the tournament for 32 years—and some impressive displays with PSV Eindhoven in the UEFA Champions League and Eredivisie. Hiddink became the manager of the Russian national team after the 2006 World Cup, and led them to main tournament of Euro 2008. He has several nicknames like “King Hiddink,” Guus Geluk (Dutch for Disney’s Gladstone Gander) or “The Goose.”

Sources:

Russian National Football Team [Wiki]

Guus Hiddink [Wiki]