Russia's Group F qualifying game for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil left Fabio Capello's team nearer to Brazil, with three games to play - at home to Israel, and away to Luxemburg and Azerbaijan. Yesterday Russia received and beat Luxemburg 4-1.
Russia 4 Luxemburg 1
Kokorin 1, 35; Joachim 90
Kerzhakov 60
Samedov 90+3
Russia
Akinfeev, Ignashevich, Denisov (Capt.), Kokorin (Ionov), Kerzhakov, Granat, Shirokov (Ryazantsev), Bystrov (Samedov), Faizulin, Kozlov, Kombarov
Games played
Russia 2 N. Ireland 0
Israel 0 Russia 4
Russia 1 Portugal 0
Russia 1 Azerbaijan 0
Portugal 1 Russia 0
N. Ireland 1 Russia 0
Russia 4 Luxemburg 1
Games to play
10/09 Russia Israel
11/10 Luxemburg Russia
15/10 Azerbaijan Russia
Group F
Portugal 8 games 5 victories, 2 draws 1 defeat 16 goals for 8 goals against 17 points
Russia 7 5 0 2 12 3 15
Israel 7 3 3 1 16 9 12
N. Ireland 7 1 3 3 6 11 6
Azerbaijan 8 0 5 3 4 10 5
Luxemburg 7 0 3 4 4 17 3
In the other groups, the favourites are all well placed to go through to the finals in Brazil. Group A seems to favour Belgium, in Group B Italy commands, in C, Germany, in D, the Netherlands and Switzerland leads Group E. In G, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece share top place with 16 points each; in H, England and Montenegro lead with 15, but Montenegro has one extra game. Finally in Group I, Spain (undefeated) leads France with 14 points to 11.
The first-placed teams qualify automatically. The 8 best second-placed teams will enter a play-off phase to choose the remaining 4 teams (UEFA sends 13 to the FIFA World Cup).
Aleksei Federov
Pravda.Ru