Russia

Rank: 18 World Cup appearances: 9 tournaments Best result: Fourth Place (1966) TOP SCORERS (QUALIFYING) For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Alexandr Kerzhakov (5)   Did you know? Oleg Salenko scored 5 goals against Cameroon in 1994 in a 6-1 win, a record yet to be broken.

Russia are certainly glad to have ended their 12-year wait to appear in a World Cup, but they will not be looking to make up the numbers in Brazil.
There is little expectation at home that Russia could go on to win the competition, but there is certainly optimism that they could qualify from the group stages for the first time since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Russia are now heading to Brazil with a good mix of youth and experience, with coach Fabio Capello introducing new names to go along with the established internationals.
The vast majority of players will come from just a handful of clubs, with Zenit St. Petersburg, Dynamo Moscow, CSKA Moscow and Lokomotiv Moscow set to supply a large percentage of the squad.
The spine of the team looks solid.
Russia conceded only five goals in qualifying for Brazil and only Belgium, England and Spain conceded fewer on route to the World Cup.
While Alexandr Kerzhakov is less than prolific now, his link-up play is key to the team. However, the emergence of 23-year-old Alexander Kokorin, who has scored five goals in 19 appearances, has helped to take some of the pressure off the Zenit St. Petersburg veteran.
The midfield reflects Russia's strength with the underrated Igor Denisov providing stability, allowing Roman Shirokov and Denis Glushakov to move forward.
To qualify from the group stages is the minimum requirement for Russia and if they manage to avoid Germany in the round of 16, then their will be quiet optimism that they could even reach the quarterfinals

STRENGTH
The back

They impressively conceded just five times in qualifying. Goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev and the central defensive partnership of Sergey Ignashevich and Vasili Berezutskiy have played together for both club and country for almost a decade. The CSKA pairing are the key to halt the attacks.

WEAKNESS
Overall imbalance

Lack of coherence in defence, poor finishing and a vulnerability to swift counter-attacks are highlighted during their qualifications round.
Lack of goals
Scoring goals could be the biggest concern for Russia and an over-reliance on forward Alexander Kerzhakov, who is the only player likely to be in Russia's squad who has previously appeared at a World Cup.

Alexander Kokorin: The hype around Kokorin started when he was merely 17 as he was dubbed the great hope of Russian football.

ONE TO WATCH
Alexander Kokorin

It would be no surprise if most fans outside of Russia had not heard of Dynamo Moscow forward Alexander Kokorin, 23, but that is likely to change by the end of the tournament.
Kokorin, who has a vague resemblance to the Canadian pop-star Justin Bieber, started his career in his home town of Valuyki, about 800 kilometres south of Moscow.
Kokorin had been seen as the great hope in Russian football since he was a teenager and the hype only increased when he scored on his Dynamo debut at the age of 17.
Now 23, he was named as Russian young player of the year in 2011 and continued his rapid progress by earning a call-up to the national team for Euro 2012.
Opportunities were few with Dick Advocaat at the helm, but that changed when Capello took over.
The Italian brought out the best in the Russian forward who has scored five goals in 19 appearances, including Russia's fastest goal, after only 19 seconds against Luxembourg.
Kokorin plays as a second striker for his club, but Capello has used him on the left flank where he has developed a good understanding with Alexander Kerzhakov.

Coach: Fabio Capello

Fabio Capello has a point to prove as he leads Russia to their first World Cup appearance in 12 years.
The Russians did not qualify for South Africa four years ago, after losing a play-off to Slovenia, but the Italian was there as England's head coach.
He is thoroughly studious and this has certainly paid dividends with the Russian team. A once-leaky defence has become almost watertight in the last 18 months as Russia conceded only five goals in qualifying.

Squad

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Yury Lodygin (Zenit St. Petersburg), Sergey Ryzhikov (Rubin Kazan)
Defenders: Vasili Berezutskiy (CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Granat (Dynamo Moscow), Andrey Eshchenko (Anzhi Makhachkala), Sergey Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Alexey Kozlov (Dynamo Moscow), Dmitry Kombarov (Spartak Moscow), Andrey Semenov (Terek Grozny), Georgi Schennikov (CSKA Moscow)
Midfielders: Denis Glushakov (Spartak Moscow), Igor Denisov (Dynamo Moscow), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow), Yury Zhirkov (Dynamo Moscow), Alexey Ionov (Dynamo Moscow), Alexander Samedov (Lokomotiv Moscow), Victor Faizulin (Zenit St. Petersburg), Oleg Shatov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Roman Shirokov (Krasnodar)
Forwards: Maxim Kanunnikov (Amkar Perm), Alexander Kerzhakov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Alexander Kokorin (Dynamo Moscow)