Posted on 06/10/2016 11:52:28 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
Excitement is building among Russian soccer fans ahead of the UEFA 2016 European Championship in France, which begins on June 10.
Leonid Slutskys men open their Group B campaign on June 11 against a talented young England side at Marseilles Stade Velodrome.
Russian bookmakers are clearly not especially optimistic about their teams chances of beginning the tournament with three points, with Russia at 4-6 to emerge victorious and group favorite England at 1-9 on to win.
Its clear that this team [England] is one of the favorites for Euro 2016, Slutsky told Sport Express on June 4, adding that while he was impressed by Englands attacking options and depth of quality, Im far more concerned right now by the question of whether we turn up in optimal condition.
The hopes of Slutskys team, which will also face Slovakia and Wales in its bid to reach the knockout stages, have been slightly dampened by injuries to key players, with star forward Alan Dzagoev missing the tournament in France because of injury.
The situation was compounded when midfielder Igor Denisov was injured during a friendly match with Serbia on June 5, resulting in a late call-up for Artur Yusupov from Zenit St. Petersburg.
However, the tournament sees the addition of two new players to the Russian squad: naturalized Brazilian goalkeeper Guilherme, who has been playing for Moscow FC Lokomotiv since 2007, and Roman Neustädter, a Russo-German defensive midfielder from Bundesliga's Schalke 04 who is likely to play his first competitive match with the Russian team.
So far, though, the main disturbance has come from a different source: English fans.
Great game between France and Romania.
Hope you didn’t miss Messi’s hat trick against Panama, and he did it as a sub in the second half.
Maybe one day he can break into the starting XI
Country | W | D | L | GD | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
FRA | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
ALB | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
SWI | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
ROM | 0 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 |
Should be 4-0 England today. COYS!
Switzerland Population 8,211,700
Albanian diaspora
There are an estimated 250,000 ethnic Albanians in Switzerland, most of them from Kosovo, a sizeable minority arriving from Macedonia.[18] Albanians have migrated to Switzerland since the 1960s,[19] but bulk of immigration took place during the 1990s, especially during 1998–1999.
Not since John Charles, a world-class performer at centre-half and centre-forward in Serie A six decades ago, have they relied so much on one player.
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