Akinfeev urges Russia to have no regrets

Two wins in September under new coach Leonid Slutski have put Russia back on the path to UEFA EURO 2016; victories this week against Moldova and Montenegro will now guarantee them a trip to France. CSKA Moskva goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev is determined they will not let the opportunity slip.

UEFA.com: Russia got six points from their September games against Sweden and Liechtenstein. How important could those results be?

Igor Akinfeev: Sure, they are important but there are still two matches ahead so everything can change. We were happy, but if we drop points in the remaining games everything can turn around. Nobody is getting overly excited about those victories yet – it's not like we've made it or anything. We need to keep winning for two more games, then we can celebrate. We haven't really achieved anything yet. We started qualification quite badly. With these two wins, we've managed to come back into it and I hope we will not bounce back out of the reckoning again.

UEFA.com: How has new coach Leonid Slutski changed things?

Akinfeev: It would be silly to say that he walked in and changed everything – anything but. Leonid Slutski came in quietly, got the team together; we had some meetings, we had some tactical sessions, everything was nice and calm. Everything was based on professionalism. The main thing was to get the players feeling comfortable so they started believing in themselves and the team could become united. Leonid Slutski cannot be given all the credit, even though he did 80% of the work; 20% of the effort is down to us, the players, because we managed to deliver results. We want to get these results every time, because footballers' careers don't last long – we don't want to be left feeling gutted afterwards.

UEFA.com: Moldova and Montenegro are next up; what are you expecting from these two fixtures?

Akinfeev: We are expecting to win so that we can make our country happy, our friends and relatives happy, and the national team happy.

Playing for the national team is twice as hard in terms of pressure. I have been involved for 11–12 years and I can always feel how attitudes towards you turn – everyone loves you when things are going well, then some difficulties come and half the country turns against you and slings mud at you. So we don't want to disappoint anyone. We just want to win two games nicely and go to France. So I hope that everybody, our fans and ourselves, can make this effort together.