Russia will continue their preparations for World Cup hosting duties when they take on Austria at the Tivoli Stadion on Wednesday.
Stanislav Cherchesov’s men have lost three and drawn two of their last five exhibition matches, hardly ideal form for next month’s tournament.
Latest Odds
However, they are available at 23/10 (3.30) with bet365 to give their confidence a lift with a morale-boosting victory in Innsbruck.
GettyHaving come out on top in both of the Euro 2016 encounters between the teams, the Burschen are 5/4 (2.25) favourites to record another victory in this clash.
The sides shared a 0-0 draw when they last met in a friendly match back in 2004, and you can get odds of 11/5 (3.20) on them cancelling each other out once again here.
Team News
Viktor Vasin, Georgi Dzhikiya and Aleksandr Kokorin have all been ruled out of the Sborynaya’s preliminary World Cup squad due to injury, while the experienced Igor Denisov is absent after a previous disagreement with the manager.
Franco Foda has offered call-ups to four uncapped players in his squad, with Marcel Sabitzer, Valentino Lazaro, Michael Gregoritsch, Maximilian Wöber and Marc Janko all unavailable due to injury.
Resolute Russians
To be fair to the out-of-form Russians, they have not picked easy warm-up fixtures as they prepare for just their second World Cup campaign in four tournaments – taking on Argentina, Spain, Brazil and France in their last four games.
While none of those matches have resulted in victories, they have at least held their own for significant portions of the encounters, letting in seven of the 10 goals conceded after the half-time break.
Predictions
Having also scored seven of their previous nine goals in the second half, odds of 11/10 (2.10) seem generous on the guests ensuring the majority of the action takes place after the break in Austria.
Highest-scoring half: second at 11/10 (2.10) with bet365 for a 1.5pt stake