Russia vs South Korea Prediction - Will A Reshaped Russia Be Able To Overcome The Korean Tigers?

Next Tuesday, Russia and Korea Republic will measure forces at Arena Pantanal in Cuiabá on what will be the second match of the day for Group H.

Russia have changed a lot since the arrival of Fabio Capello at the helm of the team. The short passing football from Dick Advocaat, quite similar to what the Russians used to display under Oleg Romantsev's and even Pavel Sadyrin’s command, is completely gone and this new pragmatic Russia’s game style is mainly based on long balls from one flank to the other and on quick counter-attacks always looking to take advantage from the opponents’ mistakes.

The last minute injury of Roman Shirokov, probably the team’s most influential midfielder, was an huge blow to Capello’s plans, although he can still count on a fair share of quality midfielders such as Fayzulin, Denisov, Glushakov, and Shatov.

The Russian team are undefeated since last August, when they surprisingly sucumbed at the hands of a frail Northern Ireland side on their trip to Belfast, but ever since then Russia are on a ten-match undefeated streak.

Russia finished their UEFA qualification group in the first place, in front of Portugal, thus granting a ticket to the World Cup after a long twelve year fast.

Fabio Capello will certainly display his team with his usual 4-3-3 style with an inverted midfield triangle composed of Denisov, Shatov, and Fayzulin. The team’s wide attacking players are probably their most influential ones, Zhirkov and Samedov currently being responsible from a share deal of the team’s attacking movements.

For the match against Korea, Fabio Capello will probably have all the players at his disposal since there aren’t currently any names on the injury list.

As for Korea, the match against Russia comes on at a fairly negative moment for the Asian Tigers. The team’s manager, Hong Myung-bo, is currently facing severe criticism because of the team’s recent poor performances. Korea collected five defeats during their last seven matches and was severely hammered 4-0 by Ghana on a preparation match last week. The good old days of Guus Hiddink at the command of the Koreans are long gone and the team never managed to replicate their outstanding performance of the 2002 World Cup, when the Dutchman was at the helm of the team and catapulted them to the 4th place of the competition.

When both teams went head-to-head last November in Dubai, Russia controlled and won the match by 2-1. The Russians are favourites for next Tuesday’s match and, judging from Korea’s recent performances, they will need to put up something very special if they want to overcome Fabio Capello’s “new Russia”.

Russia

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

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Korea Republic

Stats: W-1 L-4 D-0

Recent Form - LLWLL

Possible Line-ups

Russia (4-3-3) - Akinfeev - Yeschenko - Ignashevich - V. Berezutski - Kombarov - Denisov - Shatov - Fayzulin - Zhirkov - Samedov - Kokorin

Korea Republic (4-4-1-1) - Jung - Lee - Kim - Hong - Yun - Lee Yong - Ki - Han - Koo Ja-Cheol - Son Heung-Min - Park

Prediction: Russia 1 Korea Republic 0