Russia vs Slovakia Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Jun 13, 2016 @ 01:40 am

Next Wednesday, 15th of June 2016, an inconsistent Russia will measure forces with a Slovakia hurting in their pride at Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille on their second match at Group B.

Although they managed to rescue a last minute draw against England last Saturday, Russia didn’t have the best of days out there. Leonid Slutsky sprung a few surprises in the starting line-up by including Roman Neustäder, who had only been granted Russian citizenship a few days ago, as a defensive midfielder, and CSKA Moscow’s attacking midfielder Aleksandr Golovin as a deep-lying playmaker alongside the Schalke 04 player. Up front, Slutsky keeps pushing Smolov as a winger, when he played almost the entire season as a centre forward at FC Krasnodar, something that allowed him to become Russian Premier League top scorer, and once again that proved to be a poor decision from the 45-year old manager.

Russia’s goalkeeper, Igor Akinfeev, proved once again why he was considered one of the best “netminders” in the Old Continent a few years ago by pulling off a splendid performance, especially in the second-half of the match.

Russia need to improve if they want to take something positive from the match against Slovakia next Wednesday and Leonid Slutsky will probably produce a few changes in the starting XI in order to fix some of last Saturday’s mistakes. Spartak Moscow’s midfielder might claw a place at the centre of the pitch and it might also be a good idea to produce a few positional changes in the attacking midfield department, since both Smolov and Oleg Shatov have experienced plenty of difficulty last time out.

As for Slovakia, Jan Kozak’s men didn’t have a dream start in the competition, after being defeated by an inspired Welsh team at Bordeaux last Saturday.

An early goal by Real Madrid’as superstar Gareth Bale, in a way, upset Slovakia’s strategy, who struggled to get back in the game. It was only during the second-half that Legia Warsaw attacking midfielder Ondrej Duda, who cme in for Patrik Hrosovsky on minute 60’, leveled the score just one minute after he came in the pitch. Nevertheless, Slovakia revealed once again some frailties back in the defence and Robson-Kanu was presented with the opportunity to provide Wales with the three points netting the winning goal ten minutes before the end of the match. Slovakia did everything possible to claw a last minute equalizer and have almost made it, when Adam Nemec’s powerful header hit the post in the dying moments of the match.

Russia

Stats: W-1 L-2 D-2

Recent Form - DDLLW

Slovakia

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - LDWWD

Possible Line-ups

Russia (4-2-3-1) – Akinfeev - Smolnikov - Ignashevich - Berezutski - Schennikov - Glushakov - Neustäder - Kokorin - Shatov - Smolov - Dzyuba

Slovakia (4-5-1) – Kozacik - Pekarik - Skrtel - Durica - Svento - Hamsik - Duda - Kucka - Mak - Weiss - Nemec

Injury List / Suspended Players

Russia - Igor Denisov (inj - out for the tournament) - Yuri Lodygin (in doubt)

Slovakia - None

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions