Russia: Road to Euro 2012

Touted as the strongest side in Group A, Russia would be looking to atleast repeat their 2008 Euro performance where they managed to reach the semi-finals and if possible even better that by springing a few surprises along the way.

Russia, the Euro 2008 semi finalists, had everything going their way as it seemed. Their draw, on paper, was very much an easy one.

Russia began their qualifiers with a satisfying 2-0 win over Andorra. Pavel Pogrebnyak's brace got the Dick Advocaat era off to a slick start.

Russian goalkeeper, Igor Akinfeev, erred to hand Slovakia a surprise victory over the home side. Their campaign seemed to have hit troubled waters in the very beginning as the home fixture was to be followed by a tricky fixture against Ireland in Dublin.

It is then that Dick Advocaat's men stood up to the challenge to prove their mettle. Aleksandr Kerzhakov, Alan Dzagoev and Roman Shirokov scored for the visiting side in a 3-2 victory over the home side.

They then proceeded to beat a lowly Macedonia, riding high on Kerzhakov's strike yet again. Although Russian goalie, Igor Akinfeev, too made amends for his error against Slovakia and saved a penalty to confirm the victory.

Against Armenia, Russia seemed to being going all guns blazing but could not manage that elusive goal. It was a frustrating 0-0 draw for Dick Advocaat's men. But they more than made up for it when the same team visited them in St. Petersburg. Although Armenia were the ones to score first, Roman Pavlyuchenko came into his own as he hammered a hat-trick to hand Russia a 3-1 win.

It was Igor Semshov who then led them to a narrow 1-0 victory over Macedonia.

Next up for Russia was the signature clash against the Republic of Ireland. As expected, the teams shared the spoils. None of the sides could break the deadlock even though Russia did miss a few golden chances.

The Slovakians, who had defeated Russia earlier in the qualifying stages, met a much more determined Russian side this time. Dzagoev's goal 20 minutes from time handed the Russians a well deserved victory. This also meant that they were extremely close to an automatic qualification to the final tournament in POland/Ukraine.

When Russia faced Andorra in their final clash, they were always expected to beat them. What was not expected was the way they steamrolled Andorra. A 6-0 drubbing meant that they secured their spot at the Euro 2012.