I think Russia might be able to perform much better in this year world cup as they are the host nation for this world cup tournament, the home crowd advantage will surely be able to cheer up and boost the morale of the whole Russia team when they are falling behind their opponent during the match.
No way, the round of 16 is maximum, if they get lucky. I'm Russian, trust me)
I've already written about it. I consider Egypt to have more chances on advancing from group A and let me try to explain again why.
1) An aggregated skill of players seems to be nearly the same for both teams, but I consider Egyptians to be better due to having such personalities as Salah, Hegazy, Elmohamady, Elneny, Sobhi, and some others, who have enough experience of playing in best European leagues.
2) I've mentioned
in this post the limit on foreign players in Russia and explained, why it has terrible affection on the motivation of our players.
3) Stanislav Cherchesov is a weak and stubborn coach. Tomorrow he is going to announce the list of 35 players, who will prepare for the World Cup, and I am afraid there won't be Igor Denisov (the captain of current Russian Champion) and Artyom Dzyuba (one of the best forwards in the Spring part the season) in it. Every football fan in Russia knows Cherchesov doesn't like both of them and can ignore them just because of personal antipathy. I suppose smart and experienced Hector Cuper is much more skillful and sophisticated coach and he will manage to find and exploit weaknesses in Cherchesov's tactic.
I admire your objectivity. I also think that Egypt should have better chances. But I also think they don't have any. Unfortunately, if the chances are close, which they are, I am sure FIFA will take care of the hosts, as usually they do (just remember South Korea as the most obvious example).
I was curious about why Russia doesn't have a better team at the moment. Russia always had amazing players, and your league is currently very strong which should be a good basis for producing strong quality players. However, your explanation from point 2. (thank you for that) might be just what I was looking for. Still, the league is pretty good, your clubs are performing well in Europe and I think Russian national squad should be better.
The omission of Denisov and Dzyuba would be a mistake, I agree.
