To improve the performance of our website, show the most relevant news products and targeted advertising, we collect technical impersonal information about you, including through the tools of our partners. You can find a detailed description of how we use your data in our Privacy Policy. For a detailed description of the technologies, please see the Cookie and Automatic Logging Policy. By clicking on the "Accept & Close" button, you provide your explicit consent to the processing of your data to achieve the above goal. You can withdraw your consent using the method specified in the Privacy Policy.<doc-sep>Some are calling it El Gasico. Russia and Saudi Arabia meet in the first match of the 2018 World Cup on Thursday, kicking off a month of high-level international football. Odds forecast a win for Russia, but the lack of quality on both teams presents a certain air of unpredictability for a match that is historically always won by the hosts. Russia & Saudi Arabia Squads Russia might start a 38-year old at center back. They had a pair of defenders retire, and had another pair go down with knee injuries before the tournament. Their best offensive player, Aleksandr Kokorin, is also out with a knee injury. They will instead rely on Fyodor Smolov to provide the spark up top, and rely on a handful of high-motor midfielders to keep themselves alive. Injuries aside, Russia just hasn’t been very good in international play. They haven’t won a match since October, a 4-2 win over South Korea that was aided by a pair of own goals. The only sure thing in the lineup will be Igor Akinfeev. The captain, who has spent his entire club career at CSKA Moscow, will be in charge of organizing an inexperienced back line on the fly. Russia has been playing with three center backs since Stanislav Cherchesov, but it’s unknown who will start in the opener. ESPN predicts a 5-3-2 for Russia, with Smolov alone up top. For Saudi Arabia, it’s a matter of chemistry and match fitness. Manager Juan Antonio Pizzi was only hired in November, after failing to reach the World Cup with Chile. 20 of 23 players are from the Saudi Premier League, and most are from the top two teams in the league. That means a ton of untested talent, with most of the roster seeing their first-ever World Cup. And then there’s the transfers. In an effort to get their players some high-level experience, Saudi officials struck a deal with La Liga to send a handful of players to Spain on loan. The plan backfired, as the players stayed on the bench and are now lacking proper fitness heading into the World Cup. Saudi Arabia will try to use their offensive playmakers to frustrate the inexperienced Russian defenders. Yahya Al Shehri is the playmaker, and he’ll look to feed balls into Mohamed al-Sahlawi, who led all players globally with 17 goals in qualifying. With that in mind, expect to see something like a 4-2-3-1 from Saudi Arabia. Russia & Saudi Arabia Lineups Russia: Akinfeev, Fernandes, Kutepov, Ignashevich, Zhirkov, Gazinskiy, Zobnin, Samedov, Golovin, Dzagoev, Smolov Saudi Arabia: Al-Maiouf; Alburayk, Os.Hawsawi, Om.Hawsawi, Al-Shahrani; Otayf, Al-Dawsari, Al-Faraj, Al-Jassam; Al-Shehri, Al-Sahlawi<doc-sep>We finish up our World Cup group previews with Group H, which looks at first glance to feature a gulf between two strong sides (Poland and Colombia) towering over a pair of less-heralded squads (Senegal and Japan). Will Poland and Colombia go through as expected, or might Senegal and/or Japan pull off a shock? ~ POLAND FIFA Rank: #10 Betting odds to win: 66/1 (bet365) Qualified via: won its UEFA group (ahead of Denmark, Montenegro, Romania, Armenia, and Kazakhstan) Manager: Adam Nawalka 2014 World Cup Result: Did not qualify (this is Poland’s first World Cup since 2006) Probable Formation: 4-4-1-1 or 4-2-3-1 It may be a surprise to see that, following four straight appearances from 1974 through 1986, the Polish team has only made it to two World Cups (2002 & 2006) since. After all, things have been looking up in recent years. In 2016 at France, Poland put on its best ever show at the EUFA Euro competition with a quarterfinal appearance, losing on penalty kicks to Portugal who ended up taking the crown. That elevated Poland to its highest ever FIFA ranking of #5 in 2017, but the nation hasn’t quite had that breakthrough performance yet to join the truly elite teams. With once-in-a-generation-talent Lewandowski in his prime, now would be the perfect time for a return to the glory days of 1974 and 1982 when Poland took third place in the World Cup. As the core stars of the team (Lewandowski / Grosicki / Piszczek / Glik) are all 29 or older, this could be Poland’s last best shot at grandeur for a long time. Winning its World Cup qualifying group comfortably, the Polish team unsurprisingly scored by far the most goals of any team therein (28, compared to next-best 20 from Denmark). However, its defense was suspect, actually allowing the fourth most goals (14) of the six teams! (Denmark conceded the fewest at only 8 goals.) It only lost one game out of its 10 qualifiers, but kept just three clean sheets, allowing two goals each at Kazakhstan, home to Denmark, and home to Montenegro, while allowing four at Denmark (in its lone loss, as you may have surmised). As such, we should definitely start on the offensive end when it comes to the World Cup fantasy radar for the White & Reds. Polish Players to Consider for Your Fantasy Teams Another huge reason to start on the offensive end, of course, is superstar forward Robert Lewandowski, an unstoppable goal scoring dynamo. Over the past three seasons with Bayern Munich, Lewandowski has notched 89 goals and 14 assists across 95 Bundesliga games. Meanwhile, with the national team, the sniper boasts 52 scores and 17 helpers in 93 caps, including finishing an eye-popping 16 of the team’s 28 goals in the recent set of 10 qualifying affairs, which included hat tricks home against Denmark and Romania as well as at Armenia. Speaking of exploding, the best example would naturally be his mesmerizing, lightning quick, five goal haul as a second half substitute in a 15-minute span against VfL Wolfsburg in 2015, leaving his then-manager Pep Guardiola smilingly speechless: There are a select few players who have made a name for themselves as the cream of the crop worldwide: Messi... Ronaldo... Neymar. Robert Lewandowski is close, but he hasn’t quite made it to that elite stage. Now he is primed to step onto the Russian World Cup stage and announce himself as a leading man who should be mentioned in the same breath as the best of the best in world football, and similarly with a single moniker: Lewandowski. As such, the Polish sniper should be a valuable fantasy commodity, especially in the early rounds. However, he will not be as enticing as those who carry their nations through the knockout stage as well. In a team game, there is only so much one man can do. If Poland falters, it will likely be due to its Achilles’ heel on defense, not as a result of a lack of greatness from its talisman. Beyond Lewandowski, there isn’t an awful lot left at the table but scraps in terms of scoring goals (after Lewandowski’s 16 qualifying scores, the next highest scoring player had only three). With 12 goals and 12 assists across 38 caps, fellow forward Arkadiusz Milik might be an interesting speculative punt as a cheap third striker who could benefit from all of the attention on Lewandowski. However, after suffering a spate of injuries in recent seasons, it is unclear if Milik is fit enough to be relied upon as a regular starter. Value can be found in who will be feeding the superstar striker while chipping in with the odd goal themselves. In that respect, midfielder Kamil Grosicki (Hull) stands out, having tallied 12 goals with 17 assists in 56 career caps. Piotr Zielinski (Napoli) could also be a great option, especially if he is inexpensive, having failed to score but providing six assists in recent qualification. Even though Poland comes in as the group favorite, and the other teams in the group may try to park the bus in order to blunt the Polish scoring machine, I still hesitate to endorse the defenders and keepers with too much enthusiasm, given their difficulty securing clean sheets against low-level qualifying competition. The keepers, Lukasz Fabianski (Swansea) and Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus) are both good and have plied their trades in top leagues, but neither is what anybody would quite call a world class number one. (During qualification, Fabianski started seven times and Szczesny thrice, so it is not a given regarding who will get the nod for the World Cup.) If the actual starter is bargain-priced in coming in cheaper than who turns out to be the back-up, it may be worth tapping the starter as your back-up in fantasy. Unlike most of the truly top tier national teams, none of the expected Polish starting defenders plies his trade for an elite club team. The closest would be Kamil Glik of Monaco or Lucasz Piszczek of Borussia Dortmund.<doc-sep>Argentina football team arrived in Russia ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2018 on Saturday, and they did so in stylish fashion. Their plane -- decorated with Rolling Stones imagery -- also brought along three tons of food and the personal chefs to cook for them. “The national team brought with it all the traditional food for Argentina: beef, pork, dulce de leche, mate, etc. There are about three tons of products in Bronnitsy from Argentina, the chefs who will cook for the team have already arrived in Bronnitsy,” Sports Illustrated quoted Argentina’s ambassador to Russia, Ricardo Lagorio, as telling TASS news agency. FOLLOW | Complete schedule of the FIFA World Cup 2018 It would seem that the Argentine contingent is keen on staying in Russia for a long time given the quantity of food they have brought. Lionel Messi and his team are certainly going to be well looked after at their training base in Bronnitsy, which is about 25 miles from Moscow, and frequented by Russian national teams across various sport categories. ALSO READ | FIFA World Cup team profile: Brazil eye record sixth title Argentine midfielder Paulo Dybala posted a picture of the team’s arrival on Instagram. He can be seen posing alongside striker Gonzalo Higuain and right-back Gabriel Mercado. Rusia2018 👅 A post shared by Paulo Dybala (@paulodybala) on Jun 9, 2018 at 6:29am PDT Manchester City star Sergio Aguero also posted a image with captain Messi in the aircraft. Argentina, grouped with Iceland, Croatia and Nigeria in Group D, will get their Russian sojourn underway against Iceland on Saturday.<doc-sep>
On June 14, football fans from all over the world will gather to celebrate the return of the biggest competition in the sport. On that day, the FIFA World Cup, highly regarded as the mother of all football competitions will go live in Moscow, the capital city of Russia. Players are getting ready, fans are packing their bags, everyone is preparing to watch the most prestigious tournament. No one wants to miss any part of the action-packed and interesting competition. As the tournament draws nearer, one question that football fans can't stop asking is whether South American giants, Argentina can win the tournament this time or not. They made it into the final of the competition in 2014, but they narrowly lost the trophy to Germany, who defeated them 1-0 in Brazil. Under the tutorship of Jorge Sampaoli and the leadership of Lionel Messi, the Albiceleste are back in the competition once again, looking forward to making up for their recent misfortune in the last edition. While their mediocre performances during the qualifiers have raised big question marks over their chances of winning the tournament this year, it is true that the Albiceleste can definitely overturn the odds and end up winning the crown in Russia due to the 5 reasons listed below. #5 The Attacking strength Argentina have a lot of decent attackers As usual, the World Cup will feature a lot of incredible players who will be fighting for honor and prestige for their respective nations. Countries like Germany, England, Spain, Brazil, France, and Belgium are all filled with amazing talent on all areas of the pitch. But when it comes to analyzing the nations with the most impressive attackers in the World Cup this year, no one definitely compares with Argentina. The South Americans have some of the best attackers in the world right now, with the likes of Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria, Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala in their ranks. These are players who are currently scoring for fun and they are all heading into the World Cup after having prolific campaigns with their respective clubs. Messi scored 44 goals for Barcelona in all competitions last term, Aguero scored 30 for Manchester City, Higuain scored 23, Dybala 24, and Di Maria 19. Since the most important thing in football is to score goals and win games, the presence of amazing sharpshooters in the squad means that Argentina definitely stands the chance of winning the prestigious trophy in Russia. Follow Sportskeeda for 2018 World Cup Scores, Latest News & Updates, Match Analysis, Detailed Stats, Fantasy Tips, Controversies, Match Predictions and much more. All stats via transfermarkt 1 / 5 NEXT