World Cup 2018 > Group A (II)
As always, we will be doing more team-by-team analysis of countries in this year's world cup. In this edition, we bring you the other teams in group A; Russia and Saudi Arabia.
To view other team profiles, check the Archives section at the footer of this post.
Teams
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Egypt
- Uruguay
Facts File
Russia
- Russia has participated in 10 previous world cups. Under the Soviet Union, it attended 7 world cups. The country has been in 3 world cups since its independence in 1991 (USA 1994, Japan/Korea 2002 and Brazil 2014). This year's tournament brings the hosts to a total of 11 world cups attended, during which their best performance was in England 1966 when they finished 4th place.
Squad
nickname: Sbornaya (The National Team)
players:
- Igor Akinfeev (1) - GK
- Andre Lunyov (12) - GK
- Vladimir Gabulov (20) - GK
- Mario Fernandes (2) - DF
- Ilya Kutepov (3) - DF
- Sergey Ignashevich (4) - DF
- Andrey Semenov (5) - DF
- Roman Zobnin (11) - MF
- Fyodor Kudryashov (13) - DF
- Vladimir Granat (14) - DF
- Daler Kuzyayev (7) - MF
- Yuri Gazinsky (8) - MF
- Fyodor Smolov (10) - FW
- Aleksei Miranchuk (15) - MF
- Anton Miranchuk (16) - MF
- Aleksandr Golovin (17) - MF
- Denis Cheryshev (6) - MF
- Alan Dzagoev (9) - MF
- Yuri Zhirkov (18) - FW
- Aleksandr Samedov (19) - FW
- Aleksandr Yerokhin (21) - FW
- Artem Dzyuba (22) - FW
- Igor Smolnikov (23) - FW
coach: Fabio Capello
- Russia 0 - Brazil 3 > 23/03/18
- Russia 1 - France 3 > 27/03/18
- Austria 1 - Russia 0 > 30/05/18
- Russia 1 - Turkey 1 > 05/06/18
win: 0 (0%); draw: 1 (25%); loss: 3 (75%)
Saudi Arabia
- Mohammad Al-Sahlawi scored 16 goals in the qualification stages of this year's world cup. The 30-year-old forward finished as joint-top scorer, along with Poland’s Robert Lewandowski and UAE’s Ahmed Khalil.
Squad
nickname: Al-Akhdhar (The Green One)
players:
- Abdullah Al-Mayouf (1) - GK
- Yasser Al-Mosailem (21) - GK
- Mohammed Al-Owais (22) - GK
- Mansour Althaqfi Al-Harbi (2) - DF
- Osama Hawsawi (3) - DF
- Ali Al-Bulaihi (4) - DF
- Omar Hawsawi (5) - DF
- Mohammed Al-Breik (6) - DF
- Yasser Al-Shahrani (13) - DF
- Motaz Hawsawi (23) - DF
- Salman Al-Faraj (7) - MF
- Yahya Al-Shehri (8) - MF
- Hattan Bahebri (9) - MF
- Abdulmalek Al-Khaibri (11) - MF
- Mohamed Kanno (12) - MF
- Abdullah Otayf (14) - MF
- Abdullah Al-Khaibari (15) - MF
- Housain Al-Mogahwi (16) - MF
- Taisir Al-Jassim (17) - MF
- Salem Al-Dawsari (18) - MF
- Fahad Al-Muwallad (19) - FW
- Muhannad Assiri (20) - FW
- Mohammed Al-Sahlawi (10) - FW
coach: Juan Antonio Pizzi
- Saudi Arabia 3 - Moldova 0 > 26/02/18
- Iraq 4 - Saudi Arabia 1 > 28/02/18
- Saudi Arabia 1 - Ukraine 1 > 23/03/18
- Belgium 4 - Saudi Arabia 0 > 27/03/18
- Saudi Arabia 2 - Algeria 0 > 09/05/18
- Saudi Arabia 2 - Greece 0 > 15/05/18
- Italy 2 - Saudi Arabia 1 > 28/05/18
- Saudi Arabia 0 - Peru 3 > 03/06/18
- Germany 2 - Saudi Arabia 1 > 08/06/18
win: 3 (33.33%); draw: 1 (11.11%); loss: 5 (55.56%)
Sources and References
World Soccer
Fifa official website
Wikipedia
Goal
Livescores
Archives
World Cup 2018 > Group A