Next Saturday, 15th of November 2014, a completely unstable Russia will travel to Vienna to measure forces with a highly moralized Austrian side at the emblematic Ernst-Happel-Stadion for the Euro 2016 Qualifiers, a match that the Russians need to win in order to erase the recent home slip-up against Moldova from their supporters’ minds and to somehow smother the hypothetical crisis scenario that is currently hanging over Fabio Capello’s head.

After their lackluster World Cup stint last Summer, the Russian National Team has continued to fail to impress on the early stages of their walk towards the Euro 2016 tournament. Last month, Russia failed to win both their qualifying matches and although one might consider a draw against Sweden a fairly positive result, a home draw with a modest Moldovan side is definitely far from being extraordinary.

The current turmoil between Capello and the Russian Football Union is apparently far from being over and it will be interesting to see how long will the Italian experienced manager remain at Moscow without his outrageous paychecks at the end of each month.

Russia’s game under the stewardship of Capello is pale and dull and no matter how much he changes his tactical approach, the team remains absolutely numb. Capello, who is constantly complaining about the lack of quality selectable players for him to choose for the National Team, seems to have lost the support of those who are currently part of the team, as the lack of commitment among the players is blatantly obvious.

Despite all the negative aspects, there are also some good news for the Italian manager, as the experienced Spartak Moscow’s midfielder Roman Shirokov is back from injury and is now ready to offer his usual valid contribution to team.

The Vienna’s match will probably be the ultimate test for Capello’s Russia, as another defeat might mean the end of Don Fabio’s reign at the land of the czars.

As for Austria, they are probably living one of the most impressive moments of the last decade and are once again proving that their quality campaign during the World Cup qualifiers was not a mere happy incident. Austria’s last defeat was more than one year ago, when they lost to Sweden during the World Cup qualifiers, and from that moment onwards Marcel Koller’s boys have shown excellent consistency levels, besides the quality football they display.

Although, in theory, Russia might be considered favourite for the next Saturday’s match, one cannot ignore how much Austria have improved over the last couple of years, and for that reason, it is more than reasonable to say that they might cause the Russians a major upset.

Austria

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - WWDWD

Russia

Stats: W-2 L-0 D-3

Recent Form - DDWWD

Possible Line-ups

Austria (4-2-3-1) - Almer - Klein - Dragovic - Hinteregger - Fuchs - Alaba - Baumgartlinger - Arnautovic - Junuzovic - Harnik - Okotie

Russia (4-5-1) - Akinfeev - Parshivlyuk - Berezutski - Ignashevich - Kombarov - Glushakov - Fayzulin - Shirokov - Samedov - Cheryshev - Kokorin

Prediction

Austria 1 Russia 1