Fomina sees Russian revival

Midfielder Elena Fomina does not expect Russia to repeat the mistakes which cost her side dearly against Sweden when Igor Shalimov's side face England in a crunch game on Matchday 2.

High tempo
Russia opened their Group C campaign at UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ with a 3-0 defeat by Thomas Dennerby's team, who effectively killed the game with two goals from Charlotte Rohlin and captain Victoria Sandell Svensson inside the first quarter of an hour. Russia reeled under the early pressure from a side tipped by Shalimov as a tournament favourite and it made for a torrid competitive debut for teenage goalkeeper Elena Kochneva. "Maybe the tempo was very high for us," said the 30-year-old, who also played at the finals in 2001. "Either way, it was a problem – we made a lot of mistakes and we got flustered in the first 15, 20 minutes." Looking ahead to what promises to be a tough contest at Helsinki Football Stadium, she added: "I hope that situation won't be repeated in our game against England."

Winning duels
Individual errors aside, Fomina believes there are other lessons to be learned from the way Russia set out their stall against Sweden, who enjoyed most of the possession and rounded off the scoring with a superb late strike by Caroline Seger. "We didn't manage to organise things properly," said the ShVSM–Izmaylovo Moskva forward. "We had big gaps between the lines and maybe it was a bit of a mistake to play defensively: maybe we should have been more attacking. I don't think we lost many duels against Sweden."

Fighting spirit
Despite the setback, the mood in the camp is upbeat as Russia prepare to face an England side on Thursday who lost 2-1 to Italy after being reduced to 10 players in the 28th minute. "The atmosphere in the team is good," Fomina said. "We talked about the mistakes, we discussed them and now we're ready and looking forward to the match. England have strong players, they're a very good team, but we are 100 per cent prepared for this game and we're hoping for the best. All our players have spirit for the fight ahead."