Russia has been automatically qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2018 as hosts. They have qualified for three world cups previously and is their first tournament as hosts. They have played the world cup 1994, 2002 and 2014 in past.
Russia has not yet managed to pass the group stage till now and will be trying their best to achieve the best result in this version as they are also the hosts.
Russia has taken part in 5 European Championships and managed to place themselves in the 4th position in Euro Cup 2008, which is their best result so far (not including the result of Soviet Union). They qualified for the World Cup 2014 as a group winner beating the football giant Portugal and other nations like Israel, Northern Ireland.
However, Russia was placed with Belgium, Nigeria, and South Korea in group H and only could secure the third position in the group and was eventually knocked out.
Aleksandr Kerzhakov is the highest scoring player for Russia who scored 30 goals in 91 appearances followed by Vladimir Beschastnykh with 26 goals so far. Sergei Ignashevich is the most capped player in the history with 120 appearances. Currently, the team is managed by Russian coach Stanislav Cherchesov with assistant coach Miroslav Romaschenko.
Russia ranks 64th in the FIFA world ranking at current but once managed to be on the 3rd position in April 1996 which is their best ever ranking.
Here is the list of players who have the possible chance to be included in the final squad of the World Cup.
Igor Akinfeev
Vladimir Gabulov
Andrey Lunyov
Guilherme Marinato
Igor Smolnikov
Fyodor Kudryashov
Viktor Vasin
Vladimir Granat
Georgi Dzhikiya
Roman Neustädter
Ilya Kutepov
Mário Fernandes
Yevgeni Chernov
Roman Shishkin
Yuri Zhirkov
Alan Dzagoev
Aleksandr Samedov
Aleksandr Golovin
Aleksandr Yerokhin
Magomed Ozdoyev
Aleksei Miranchuk
Dmitri Tarasov
Konstantin Rausch
Daler Kuzyayev
Anton Miranchuk
Denis Glushakov
Ruslan Kambolov
Aleksandr Kokorin
Fyodor Smolov
Dmitry Poloz
Anton Zabolotny
Maksim Kanunnikov
