Russia: Road to Euro 2012

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.