VS
Russia did surprisingly much better than I expected in their first game, and stole out a great point late on against the English to keep their chance of qualifying in the top 2 spots alive. Now they take on a Slovakia team, who worked really hard but were un-done by a late Robson-Kanu goal to lose 2-1 against the Welsh.
Russia despite question marks on their central defenders did well to hold on for long periods against the English, but I put the lack of goals more down to the poor creativity and finishing of the English rather than the good defending of the Russians. Russia consistently felt the pressure and Akinfeev was lucky that he had 4 shots on target that went straight to his body. Russia did show us on the offensive end that they have the talent to deliver, but did show us the pace on the counter attacking through Dzyuba, Kokorin and Smolov. They didn't have as many shots as they sat and waited for England to attack and kept try to catch them on the break and at one point it looked as if they would net first. Russia have now netted a goal in 10 straight games, and you expect them to find the back of the net once again tonight.
Slovakia played a good game against Wales, had a lot of shots on target as well as a lot of possession, but could not convert them into more goal scoring opportunities. They relied a lot on the class of Marek Hamsik who controlled most of the play and created many opportunities. The over-reliance on him is always going to be a liability as the defence will aim to contain him and there by Slovakia. Their other players such as Weiss, Duris and Mak need to step up to the plate in order to perform better. The loss to Wales resulted in their 8 game unbeaten run coming to an end, and will want to perform better as they would like to qualify to the knockout stages of the tournament.
Russia have kept just 2 clean sheets in their previous 16 European Champions matches while Slovakia have netted in 7 out of their last 9 games. With both teams looking to win this game to try and progress to the next stage, I am backing Both Teams to Score in the Russia v Slovakia encounter.
Pick Both Teams to Score Odds 2.06
