History at UEFA Euro

Russia National Football Team which won the first edition of European Championship as Soviet Union in 1960, is a member of UEFA since 1954. Soviet Union was also the runner-up in the 1964, 1972, and 1988 editions. After the Soviet Union dissolved and became Russian Federation, their best result was winning third place at the Euro 2008.

After a couple of failed coaches team decided to pursue a foreign coach and hired Guus Hiddink to manage the team for Euro 2008. This certainly helped as they advanced until the point where they left with a bronze medal. The team certainly hasn’t been doing very well for the last couple of tournaments but this year they come as one of the favorites. Russia qualified for Euro 2020 with pretty good stats. Former champions, took a win in eight of their 10 games. Only Belgium, who beat Russia twice, finished above them.

Records & Rankings

Most caps: Sergei Ignashevich – 127 times
Most goals: Aleksandr Kerzhakov – 30 Goals
Largest win (as Soviet Union): 10-0 against Finland (15 August 1957)
Largest win (as Russian Federation): 9-0 against San Marino (8 June 2019)
The largest win at European Championship: 0-3 against Wales (Euro 2016)
Most consecutive games without a defeat: 19 games – Between 1980 and 1982
Most consecutive wins: 12 – Between 1995 and 1996
Highest FIFA Ranking: 3rd

Ones to watch

Artem Dzyuba:

Best centre-forward in Russia, Artem Dzyuba, voted as the country’s best football player again last season. Having scored goals against Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Spain at the 2018 World Cup; scoring another 13 goals across Nations League, European Championship qualifying, and World Cup qualifying combined, Dzyuba became a Russian football folklore figure and still remained as an extremely important player for the team since. Being capped 50 times, he is also the second highest scorer for Russia with 29 goals. Even coming into this year’s competition 32-year-old player became highest goal scorer in their qualifiers group (I) with 9 goals scored. Whenever Dzyuba get the ball, the roar coming from the Russian side of the stands is just undeniable.

Denis Cheryshev:

Valencia star has quite a pace and impressive dribbling techniques. Although he is a natural scorer, Cheryshev is also equally great at ball passing skills. Left winger first called for the Russian squad in 2012. He scored four goals at his World Cup debut with Russia in 2018, as the team reached the quarter-finals.  Having scored 12 goals in total for the Russian team, 5 of these goals came in the Euro 2020 qualifiers group. He was left out of Euro 2016 due to an injury and now hopes to come back with great achievements.

Yuri Zhirkov:

A figure like Yuri Zhirkov is still irreplaceable in the Russian squad as someone from the younger generation has yet to emerge. His performance at the successful Euro 2008 was recognised with him being included in the “Team of the Tournament” and awarded as “Futbol’s Russian Footballer of the Year”. Although he announced his retirement from the national squad following the 2018 World Cup, he received the call to the national team once again in 2019 for Euro 2020 qualifiers against Belgium and Kazakhstan. He was also included in the preliminary extended 30-man squad for the Euro 2020. 37-year-old player played his 100th match for Russia in the 2020–2021 UEFA Nations League.

Alongside Russia, find out the rest of the host nations for Euro 2020.