Fortune deserts Hiddink's Russia

After a late Pavel Pogrebnyak goal gave Russia a 1-0 win in their first game under Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, Football Union of Russia president Vitali Mutko expressed his delight at having "hired a coach who is friendly with fortune".

Decimated squad
He may have had reason to reassess that judgement in the weeks preceding Hiddink's competitive debut in today's UEFA EURO 2008™ Group E qualifier against Croatia. With two first-choice players suspended and a raft more suffering from injuries, Hiddink's luck may well be running out. After last month's 1-0 friendly victory over Latvia, Hiddink chose to train with his players in private for a week rather than stage another friendly on Saturday. It was an attempt to foster cohesion in his squad although the absentee list may have made it difficult to forge any kind of structure.

Absent stars
Wingers Vladimir Bystrov and Yuri Zhirkov are banned for the Croatia game while injuries have put paid to playmakers Dmitri Loskov and Yegor Titov, anchorman Aleksei Smertin, striker Aleksandr Kerzhakov and defender Vassili Berezutski. With a shortage of quality defenders already a problem, Vadim Evseev was called up to deputise but an ankle worry for PFC CSKA Moskva centre-back Sergei Ignashevich has brought further gloom. "I hope he plays," said Hiddink. "The team really needs him." The 59-year-old, though, is keeping calm. "I have seen a lot in my coaching career. In this kind of situation the most important thing is not to panic, otherwise it gets worse."

Coaching moves
Nor have the casualties been restricted to Hiddink's playing staff. Assistant coach Aleksandr Borodyuk has been away with the Under-21s, who have won back-to-back matches against Finland and Hungary, while goalkeeping coach Rinat Dasaev has left after failing to agree a new contract, leaving Russia's custodians unsupervised. To make matters more tense, the venue for Croatia's visit is not in pristine condition. The Lokomotiv stadium staged games at the recent FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in heavy rain, leaving the pitch cut up, so pre-match training sessions have been held at the Dinamo stadium to prevent further deterioration.

'Not a tragedy'
Not that local excitement has dimmed. The interest in Moscow is enormous and Hiddink has been at pains to tell success-hungry fans that, in the circumstances, they should not expect too much. "We're talking about one game," he said. "Yes, success in it is very important but even if we don't win, we will continue working towards our goal. Dropping points would not be a tragedy although I assure you, we will do everything to get all three." Hiddink is even more determined to dispel the idea that he has some kind of magic touch. "Don't expect Russia to win all their matches now I am here," he said. "They didn't do it before and nothing has changed in the last two weeks." Should they survive tonight's encounter unscathed, rumours of the coach's miracle-working may prove even harder to silence.