The 2018 World Cup was a big success for the Russian national team. They started the tournament with little hope but finished second in their group to qualify for the knockout stages.
Russia caused a major upset when they knocked out Spain via a penalty shootout and also took the eventual finalists, Croatia to penalties in the quarter-final.
Russia have been grouped with Sweden and Turkey in Group 2 of UEFA Nations League B. It’s a tough group and Russia will be hoping they can defeat Turkey on home soil when the teams meet on Sunday 14th October.
Having lost just one of their five games at the World Cup inside 90 minutes, trends show Russia have lost only one of their last nine matches. They began their UEFA Nations League campaign with a very good 2-1 win in Turkey and followed that with a draw against Sweden.
Those are their only games in the Nations League to date but Russia followed up the win in Turkey with a comprehensive 5-1 thrashing of the Czech Republic at home.
Including the World Cup, Russia have lost only one of their last eight home matches and have won three of those games, picking up four draws, one of which ended with the win on penalties against Spain.
Prior to the 0-0 draw with Sweden, Russia have been scoring plenty of goal and trends show they netted 2 or more goals in four of their last seven home games. They have also conceded in thirteen each of their last fourteen matches at home.
Turkey failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, losing out in a tough group containing Croatia, Ukraine and Iceland. They will be hoping to make amends with a good UEFA Nations League campaign and having started with a home defeat at the hands of Russia they produced a good 3-2 win in Sweden.
Trends show Turkey have lost only one of their last eight games but have won just two of those matches. Turkey are undefeated in their last four away games, picking up a win in Sweden and drawing with Montenegro, Tunisia and Russia.
Both teams have scored in five of Turkey’s last six away matches and they conceded 2 or more goals in six of the last seven.
Looking ahead to the team news and Russia are set to continue with Andrey Lunev in goal following the retirement of Igor Akinfeev. Aleksandr Golovin missed out with injury in the previous international break but is set to come back into the team for this game.
Turkey will be looking towards Cengiz Under of Roma to provide the attacking spark from midfield and lay on the chances for Cenk Tosun who is likely to start the game up-front./p>
Russian football appears to have a new lease of life following the World Cup and the home fans will be expecting a good performance and win from this match. An exciting game is in prospect and we could see over 2.5 goals scored.