Football in Russia has been played since the time of the Tsar. It was not until 1912, during the Soviet era, that the first national team was formed. The first international match in which the Soviet team participated was the Olympic Games, where they lost 1-2 to Finland. In 1942, after a short period in power, the Soviet national team joined FIFA, and they won 2-1 against Bulgaria in their first match.

The mid-fifties to the late sixties of the twentieth century were the most successful days of the USSR on the world stage. Under the leadership of head coach Gavriel Casalin, they reached the quarter-finals of both World Cups from 1958 to 1962. The Soviets also won the inaugural European Championship in 1960, beating Yugoslavia 2-1 in the final. Goalkeeper Yashin became the hero of the Soviet team of that period. After that, the Soviet team won the runner-up in the 1964 European Championship and the semi-finals of the 1968 European Championship. At Euro 1972 they reached the final again, but this time ended in defeat and finished as runners-up. In the 70s and 80s, the Soviet team was not as brave as it used to be. But they did better in the Euros than in the World Cup.

In the 80s, under new coach Valery Lobanovski, they made it to the round of 16 at both the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, but neither could go far. In 1988, the Soviet team reached its peak, beating France, the Netherlands, England and Italy in the European Championships, and finally lost to the Netherlands in the group stage in the final, and also achieved the great cause of the Dutch Three Musketeers. In 1990, the Soviet Union failed to qualify from the group at the World Cup. At the 1992 European Championships, they changed the name of the team to "CIS team". The CIS also did not go far in this tournament either. After the European Championships, the team officially changed its name to Russia, and FIFA added the history of the Soviet team to their name. In 1994, the team's head coach was replaced by Pavel Sadilin, and the Russian team was given the opportunity to participate in the World Cup. They were not favored before the game. Russia have been drawn in Group B, along with world powerhouses Brazil and Sweden. This group is considered to be the group of death in that tournament. They were eliminated after back-to-back defeats to Brazil and Sweden. Russia's only win was against Cameroon, where they swept away 6-1, with Oleg Salenko scoring five goals and winning the World Cup Golden Boot with Bulgarian star Hristo Stoichkov with six goals.

At Euro 1996, the Russian Football Federation appointed Oleg Romansav as head coach. Russia performed well in the qualifiers, finishing top of their group with an unbeaten record of 8 wins and 2 draws to qualify for the finals. They were drawn in Group C in the finals, along with the Czech Republic, Italy and Germany. Russia had a terrible run in the group stage. They failed to qualify for the knockout round after a 3-3 draw with the Czech Republic, a 0-3 defeat to Germany, and a 1-2 defeat to Italy. In 1998, Russia did not qualify for the World Cup finals. They were also considered favourites to qualify for the World Cup ahead of the qualifiers. This time, the head coach of the Russian team was Boris Ignadeev, who had the opportunity to lead the Russian team to France. However, they lost to Italy in the final round and lost their qualification to the finals.

At Euro 2000, the Russian Football Federation's hopes were pinned on new coach Anatoly Bischowitz. But they lost back-to-back games to Ukraine, France and Iceland in their first three qualifying matches, which led to the sacking of Bishawitz and replacing him with Oleg Romansev. Romansaf did well at the start of his tenure, and the Russians even won at home to France. However, due to another defeat to Ukraine, they still did not have a chance to qualify for the main draw. But Romansaf led Russia to qualification for the 2002 World Cup. They were placed in Group H, one of the weakest groups of that tournament. The Russians were excellent at the start as they won the first match against the Tu-Niss team. However, they have since lost to Japan and Belgium and have failed to qualify for the knockout stages.

The coach of the Russian team at Euro 2004 was Valery Gazaev. Just like in previous years, the team qualified for the main event, but were still eliminated in the group stage. They are in Group A with Greece, Spain and Portugal. Russia lost their first two matches against Spain and Portugal and missed out on qualifying for the knockout rounds. But in their third match, they won 2-1 against future champions Greece. After failing to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, the Russian Football Federation decided to hire a foreigner as the team's head coach due to poor performance by the local coach, and Dutchman Guus Hiddink took over. Under his leadership, the Russian team qualified for Euro 2008. They were drawn in Group D in the finals, along with Greece, Spain and Sweden. In the group stage, Russia defeated Spain at its peak 1:4 in the first game, but Greece sent home the defending champion 1:0 in the next two games, defeated Sweden 2:0, and advanced to the last eight in the group. Then defeated the Netherlands 3:1, avenging the defeat to the Netherlands in the final 20 years ago. In the semi-finals, they lost to Spain again and missed the final.

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa had a chance to put Russia in front of the world, but in the play-offs, it lost 2:1 at home, 0:1 away and 2:2 on aggregate to Slovenia, causing a big upset. Head coach Guus Hiddink resigned. Edvocat, who led Zenit St. Petersburg to the 'Treble', took over from Russia and qualified for Euro 2012 by topping their qualifying group. Before the race, they were considered the fourth favourites to win the title. The first game defeated the Czech Republic 4:1, the second game drew 1:1 with the host Poland, and the third game was a 0:1 loss to Greece and caused a big upset, and failed to qualify from the group by a narrow disadvantage. Edvocaat immediately resigned.

On July 26, 2012, Fabio Capello, the former head coach of the England team and the Italian gold medal coach, signed a two-year contract with the Russian Football Federation, marking Capello officially taking charge of the Russian national team. Under Capello's leadership, the Russian national team topped the qualifying group with Portugal and directly qualified for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil, the third time that the Russian men's football team has reached the World Cup finals since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, Capello failed to lead the polar bear to break the curse of the World Cup group stage, and was eliminated with 2 draws and 1 loss in the third place in the group, and Russia failed to enter the round of 16 in three World Cups.

Fortunately, the Russian Football Federation was patient this time, allowing Capello to continue to lead the team to the 2016 European Championship in France. In the European preliminaries, and Austria, Sweden, Montenegro, Lithuania and Moldova in the group, due to the home and away defeat to Austria with the same score of 0-1, Capello was finally dismissed, the Russian Premier League giants CSKA Moscow coach Leonid Slutsky temporarily put out the fire, defeated Sweden 1-0 in the key home battle, and finally overwhelmed Sweden by two points in a thrilling way, and successfully entered the European Championship finals with the second place in the group.

Due to his excellent coaching ability, as well as his familiarity with the Russian Premier League players and his ability to make good use of them, the Russian Football Federation continued to appoint Slutsky as the coach of the national team to participate in the European Championship in France. If the results are good, it is possible to lead the team to the World Cup on home soil in two years' time.

As the coach of the Russian Premier League giants CSKA, Slutsky can effectively improve the backline composed of most CSKA players, supplemented by Zenit players in the midfield, etc., to build a national team that is basically composed of domestic league players, and the tacit understanding between players is not a problem. From the 23-man squad announced a few days ago, it can be seen that only central defender Roman Newstad is Schalke 04 from the Bundesliga.

In recent years, the overall standard of Russian football has declined, and it has long fallen out of the ranks of the top teams in Europe. The team's last major appearance was at Euro 08, when the team led by the then "Tsar" André Arshavin reached the semi-finals.

Today's polar bears, the characteristics of the team are not as distinct as in the past, and there is a lack of stars with outstanding individual ability. After Arshavin retired from the national team, Alain Zagoev and Aleksandr Kokorin were considered the new generation of tsars, but they never grew to the heights they expected. Due to Zagoev's serious injury, he was not selected, and the core of the midfield is the aging Roman Shirokov, and whether he can maintain his form is still a question mark. Therefore, today's Russia can only rely on the most consistent scoring point, the high school striker Otem Dzyuba who has emerged in recent seasons.

Although he is also tall, he is different from the characteristics of his predecessors such as Pavlyuchenko, who has quite delicate footwork and good awareness in front of goal. Although he only made 18 appearances for the country, eight of them came in this qualifier. A late bloomer, the 27-year-old Dzyuba is definitely the biggest contributor to Russia's promotion to the European Championship in France. The performance of 8 goals and 2 assists in 8 games is the best in the team. After moving from mid-table Russian Premier League side Rostov to St. Pietrount Zenit last summer, Dzyuba has been on full fire, scoring goals in the Russian Premier League and Champions League. If he can continue this scoring momentum, he will be Russia's biggest attacking weapon in France's European Championships.

At Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, British Airways flights landed, and England internationals in dark blue suits were in full swing. The boys are full of fighting spirit, and the handsome suits cause the girls at the airport to let out bursts of screams.

The jogie conversation between Qiansheng, Jack Wilshere and Jamie Valdy, who has recently become the focus of transfer news, if the reporter sees it, will have the association that Vardy is about to move to Arsenal under the persuasion of Qiansheng and Wilshere.

Immediately after arriving in France, England will head to Chantilly, a small town north of Paris, where they will be based during the European Championships. British media have revealed that after arriving at base camp, England will have some light training this afternoon. Once settled, the Three Lions will begin preparations for Saturday's game against Russia from tomorrow in earnest.

ps: New people and new books, ask for rewards, ask for subscriptions. (To be continued.) )