Russia nearer to Brazil

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 nearer to Brazil. 51053.jpeg

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