Russia vs Wales Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Jun 18, 2016 @ 10:37 am

Next Monday, 20th of June 2016, a clearly fragilized Russia will go head-to-head with Wales at Stadium de Toulouse in the Mid-Pyrinées region for their last match at Group B.

Russia are just 90 minutes away from finishing their stint at Euro 2016 and judging by their recent performances, they are unlikely to survive against a hard-working Welsh team next Monday. After clawing a last minute draw against England last Saturday in their opening match at the European Championship, Russia’s lacklustre performance cost them the three points against an extremely well organized Slovakia last time out. The Slovaks took the best from the somewhat childish mistakes of the Russian back line and were already winning by 2-0 at half-time. Vladimir Weiss opened the score on minute 32’ and just before half-time the usual suspect Marek Hamsik doubled their lead and almost sentenced the match.

Leonid Slutsky continued to push his insipid 4-2-3-1 system with Aleksandr Golovin and Roman Neustadter being nothing more than two castaways in a midfield line that has lost its North a long time ago.

Russia need to defeat Wales next time out and hope for Slovakia to defeat England in order to nurture some real hopes of walking through to the next stage of the tournament, but they need to have a much better performance than what they did so far if they want to proceed.

As for Wales, the Dragons showed again what they are made of and were, in a way, unlucky to succumb to England by 2-1 last time out. The usual suspect Gareth Bale opened the score for Wales with superb scorcher from a free-kick just a few minutes before the break, but the English pulled off a strong comeback in the second-half and ended up winning the match thanks to a late goal by Daniel Sturridge in injury time.

A win against Russia will automatically grant Wales a place in the next stage of the tournament and they will certainly do everything within their reach to exploit their opponents’ less impressive moment next time out.

Russia

Stats: W-0 L-3 D-2

Recent Form - LDDLL

Wales

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - LWLLD

Possible Line-ups

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

Wales (3-5-2) – Hennessey - Chester - Williams - Davies - Gunter - Taylor - Allen - Ramsey - Edwards - Bale - Robson-Kanu

Injury List / Suspended Players

Russia - Igor Denisov (inj - out for the tournament) - Shatov (in doubt) - Glushakov (in doubt)

Wales - Ledley (in doubt)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions