Russia vs Slovakia

Russia will be looking to make a decisive step towards claiming their place in Qatar 2022 when they take on Slovakia at the Kazan’ Arena.

The hosts have enjoyed a drastic upturn in form going into this matchday, with a brace of winless World Cup qualifiers (D1, L1) followed up by back-to-back 2-0 triumphs over Malta and Cyprus. Level on points with Group H toppers Croatia, Russia’s hopes of featuring in the third consecutive World Cup finals are very much alive. However, they’ll need to snap a two-game losing competitive H2H streak to remain within touching distance. Curiously, both those defeats have seen Russia fall to a 2-1 scoreline after losing the first half ‘to nil.’ Yet, the ‘Sbornaya’ can turn to their imperious World Cup qualifying form on home soil for confidence, having lost just one of their 44 such contests (W36, D7) since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Meanwhile, this is a must-win clash for Slovakia in the strictest sense, as they take the field sitting four points adrift of their hosts despite beating Cyprus 2-0 at home last time out. But after snapping a two-game World Cup qualifying winless streak (D1, L1), Slovakia will fancy their chances of maintaining their handsomely-looking overall H2H record in competitive action (W3, D2, L1). The ‘Falcons’ may still need to improve their composure in the front third after having netted a miserly average of 0.83 goals per match across their last 12 internationals (W3, D5, L4), failing to score more than twice in nearly 28 months now. Additionally, Stefan Tarkovic’s men have gone winless in their last seven international fixtures on foreign soil (D5, L3 – 90 minutes only) since beating Hungary 2-1 in a European Championship qualifier in September 2019.