England and Russia out to make amends

England take on Russia after both sides lost their opening games in Group C and now need a victory to get their campaigns on track.

• England paid the price for Casey Stoney's 28th minute dismissal against Italy, despite taking a 38th minute lead through Fara Williams' penalty. Captain Patrizia Panico levelled for Italy after the re-start and a superb drive from distance in the 82nd minute by Alessia Tuttino sealed the points for the Azzurre.

• Aside from losing Stoney through suspension, England coach Hope Powell will be monitoring the conditions of Kelly Smith and Anita Asante. Smith had been kept on the bench following knee problems before being sent on for the second half, with Powell saying: "I thought we could do all right without her and we did until the sending off. But obviously we had to rethink the strategy." Asante is a doubt after picking up knee and ankle injuries.

•  Russia need to turn things around after going down 3-0 to Sweden, one of the tournament favourites. Charlotte Rohlin and captain Victoria Sandell Svensson scored early goals and Caroline Seger rounded off with a superb late strike.  

•  Russia will try for their first European finals victory in eight attempts against Powell's side.

• The only previous occasion England and Russia have been drawn together in a UEFA European Women's Championship fixture, in 2001, both were eliminated behind Sweden and they will be hoping to avoid that fate this time around.

• When they faced off in Jena in their opening group game of the finals eight years ago it was the first time these teams had met, though England played the Soviet Union three times between 1990 and 1991 with one win for each team and a draw.

• In 2001 England took the lead on the stroke of half-time through Amanda Banks but Alexandra Svetlitskaia equalised just past the hour and Russia had the better of the later exchanges in a 1-1 draw. However, both teams went on to lose to both Germany and Sweden.

• There have been three subsequent friendly meetings; a 2-2 draw in Moscow on 21 October 2003, a 2-1 Russia win in Bristol on 19 August 2004 and a 6-0 England victory in Milton Keynes on 8 March 2007. In the last game, the England goals came from Alex Scott, Eniola Aluko, Karen Carney, Smith, Rachel Yankey and Stoney.

• The teams for the 2007 match were:
England: Rachel Brown, Alex Scott (Lindsay Johnson), Casey Stoney, Katie Chapman (Vicky Exley), Anita Asante (Laura Bassett), Emily Westwood (Stephanie Houghton), Karen Carney, Fara Williams (Jill Scott), Eniola Aluko (Jody Handley), Kelly Smith, Rachel Yankey.
Russia: Maria Pigaleva, Oksana Shmachkova, Ksenia Tsybutovich, Olga Sergaeva (Anna Kozhnikova), Maria Dyatchkova, Natalia Barbashina (Natalia Mokshanova), Elena Morozova, Olga Petrova (Olga Kremleva), Olesya Kurochkina (Svetlana Tsidikova), Valentina Savchenkova, Elena Fomina (Tatiana Skotnikova).

• The first Russian experience of this competition was as part of the Commonwealth of Independent States team that reached the two-legged 1993 quarter-finals on their sole appearance – a statistic that includes the former Soviet Union – losing 7-0 on aggregate to Germany.

• Russia lost to Germany again in the 1995 quarter-finals and although they qualified for the new final group stage in 1997 and 2001, departed with three losses in the first and one point in the latter. Last time out Finland eliminated Russia in the play-offs.

• Russia have twice qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup, in 1999 and 2003, and reached the quarter-finals on each occasion.

• England reached the final of the very first UEFA Competition for National Representative Women Teams in 1984, where they met Sweden. After losing the away leg 1-0 in Gothenburg they won by the same score in Luton but were defeated 4-3 on penalties. They made further semi-finals in 1987 and in the 1995 UEFA European Women's Championship, losing to Sweden and Germany respectively.

• Despite reaching the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup quarter-finals, England did not qualify for the 1997 European event and one of the World Cup squad, Powell, was appointed as their first full-time women's coach. In 2001 she led them to the finals, though they picked up only that point against Russia, and in 2005 England staged a successful final tournament though, after beating Finland 3-2 in their first game, a young team lost 2-1 to Denmark and 1-0 to Sweden.