Russia

Russia were one of the highlights of Euro 2008, despite a poor start against Spain they went on to reach the semi finals of the tournament. Judging by that performance Russia were then expected to go on and do well at the 2010 World Cup but they actually failed to qualify for that tournament which was a bit of a surprise.

They will want to put Russia back on the footballing map, especially as this is the first major tournament since it was announced that Russia would host the 2018 World Cup. Russia undoubtedly have the core of a good team but will struggle to match their exploits from 2008.

Best Bets On Russia At Euro 2012

Check out the best bets on Russia in the most popular Euro 2012 betting markets:

Russia To Win Group A

Russia are no world beaters but they did reach the Semi Finals of the 2008 European Championships and they have been handed the most favourable group of all here being drawn alongside Poland, Greece and Czech Republic. The fact that Poland are second favourites in this group says it all about the strength of the group, Poland finished last four years ago in their group and home advantage won't improve them enough to win this group. According to the Euro Odds Russia are in a group with three of the worst six teams in the competition so they should have few problems winning the group.

Russia To Gain Six Points In Group A

Russia my have a pretty easy group but Russia themselves are only rated the seventh or eighth best team in the competition depending on which bookie you use so they are capable of dropping points against Greece, Poland or Czech Republic. It may just be coincidence but the winners of Group A at the last two European Championships have gained six points and with Russia being beaten once in qualifying it could be a similar story here.

Russia To Be Eliminated In The Quarter Finals

Whether Russia win the group or not, they are going to have an extremely tough Quarter Final, most probably against Holland but they could also face Germany, Portugal or Denmark. Whichever teams qualify from Group B will have done extremely well and with one of the top three sides in the world probably waiting for Russia in the Quarter Final it could be curtains for Russia. Russia look extremely likely to qualify from their group and extremely unlikely to beat the the second or third best teams at the last World Cup (a World Cup Russia didn't even qualify for) so this could be one of the best bets of the tournament.

Alan Dzagoev To Be Russia's Top Scorer

Alan Dzagoev was Russia's joint top scorer in qualifying but scored in more games than Roman Pavlyuchenko who was the other Russian joint top scorer in qualifying. It will certainly be tight once again between these two players who look the most likely top scorers for Russia at Euro 2012 but the fact that Dzagoev scored in more games and is a bigger price makes him the value choice over Pavlyuchenko.

Alan Dzagoev To Be Euro 2012 Golden Boot

Russia may only reach the quarter finals but since they have the easiest group and a group they should win there should be plenty of opoortunities for a Russia player to chip in with at least three or four goals. Alan Dzagoev is a massive price in the Euro 2012 Golden Boot betting and since he has a good chance of being Russia's top scorer he appeals as a value each way bet to be the Golden Boot, he could easily sneak a place.

Russia Qualifying Results

Russia were fairly dominant in their qualifying group eventually finishing two points above Republic Of Ireland, who went on to frank that form in the playoffs by easily defeating Estonia. Russia sometimes struggled to break down the opposition, they scored either no goals or one goal on six different occasions and they will need to be more creative and clinical if they are to beat the better sides but they still head into Euro 2012 as a well fancied team.

Russia Euro 2012 Squad

This is the predicted 23 man Russia Euro 2012 squad, when the final squad is announced the squad will be updated:

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev, Vyacheslav Malafeev, Anton Shunin.

Defenders: Vasili Berezutski, Sergei Ignashevic, Aleksandr Anyukov, Aleksei Berezutski, Roman Shishkin, Renat Yanbaev, Denis Kolodin.

Midfielders: Konstantin Zyryanov, Roman Shirokov, Yuri Zhirkov, Alan Dzagoev, Igor Denisov, Igor Semshov, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Denis Glushakov, Vladimir Bystrov.

Forwards: Andrey Arshavin, Pavel Pogrebnyak, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Aleksandr Kerzhakov.

Russia Player Stats From Euro 2012 Qualifying

Russia Player's Goal Stats

Here are the most important goal stats from Russia's Euro 2012 qualifying group. Use these to pick the best goalscorer bets on Russia's games at Euro 2012.

*All stats reflect bookies rules for own goals and 90 mins play in their respective markets. Five other Russia players scored a single goal in qualification.

Russia's goals were mostly split between Alan Dzagoev and Roman Pavlyuchenko in qualifying, Pavlyuchenko deserves credit having played fewer games than Dzagoev but Pavlyuchenko supplemented his goal tally with a hat trick against Armenia so actually only scored in two games. 

Pavel Pogrebnyak had a decent scoring record given that he was mostly used as a sub during qualification and he could make some appeal as next goalscorer for in running punters whenever he comes on as a sub. Aleksandr Kerzhakov could be value to score anytime having scored in almost half his appearances in qualification.

Russia Players' Disciplinary Stats

Check out Russia's yellow and red card stats below to help highlight the best bets in the cards markets for Russia's Euro 2012 matches.

Russia had a pretty poor disciplinary record during their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign, picking up nineteen yellow cards in total during their ten matches. Those yellow cards were dished out to eleven different players which means five were repeat offenders and two of them picked three or more bookings.

The worst behaved players were Aleksandr Anyukov and  Igor Denisov with Anyukov picking up four yellow cards from eight games, including one first yellow card of the match, whilst Denisov was booked three times from seven matches and also picked up on first yellow card of the match. These look the two players to concentrate on in the bookings markets during Russia's Euro 2012 matches.

Russia Team Stats From Euro 2012 Qualifying

Russia's team stats can be found below, these stats can be applied to a selection of match markets at Euro 2012.

Russia had a similar goals for and against record as many other group winners during qualification, they conceded very few goals but didn't score a huge amount themselves, especially considering the fact that they scored six goals in one match which means in the other nine games they scored a total of eleven goals.

There was little difference between the amount of games that were under 1.5 goals and the amount of games that were under 3.5 goals which suggests that under 1.5 could be very good value on Russia's games at Euro 2012. Russia kept plenty of clean sheets in qualifying and were better defensively in the second half of their matches. Russia scored more in the first half of their games too so don't expect too many second half goals in Russia's games.

Russia were winning half their games at half time in qualifying, against better opposition in the finals that ratio could go down and since they were drawing four games at half time the most likely half time result against better teams at Euro 2012 could be the draw. At least one side kept a clean sheet in eight of Russia's qualifiers so clean sheet betting should be popular on Russia Euro 2012 matches.

Russia Recent European Championships Performances

Russia's performance at Euro 2008 came a little out of the blue in comparision to previous attempts at the competition. From 1996 to 2004 Russia had either failed to qualify or on two occasions had come rock bottom in their group, yet in 2008 they went all the way to the semi final. They went to Euro 2008 with a pretty good team but the fact that they then didn't qualify for the World Cup two years later suggests that they were flattered by their showing in 2008 or that they massively overperformed.