Russia and Sweden meet in Group G action on Saturday.

Entering Saturday’s match with eight points from six matches, Russia finds itself in need of a win in order to boost its hopes of gaining automatic qualification to this summer’s European Championship. Fabio Capello, the country’s former manager, was sacked in July, and the team is now led by Leonid Slutsky, who had been the coach of domestic powerhouse CSKA Moscow until his appointment to the national team post. Slutsky will be immensely familiar with his squad, given that 22 of the team’s 23 players ply their trade in the Russian Premier League. Igor Akinfeev, the long-serving goalkeeper of both CSKA Moscow can expect to earn his 81st cap, and experienced defenders Yuri Zhirkov and Vasili Berezutski should join in the starting lineup as well. Igor Denisov will likely be deployed in the defensive midfield role, and Roman Shirokov could feature as Russia’s playmaker. The team’s options are limited up front, and perhaps Slutsky would be wise to start the imposing Artyom Dzyuba, who is the only Russian with more than one goal thus far in qualifying. Sweden, on the other hand, knows exactly who it will call upon to score: Zlatan Ibrahimović. The PSG man has scored five goals in Group G matches, and he is his country’s all-time leading goalscorer with 56 goals in 105 appearances. Marcus Berg may well partner with Ibrahimović in attack, and Sebastian Larsson will likely play in the midfield, where Sweden will be without Kim Källström, who misses out on this match due to yellow card accumulation. The Swedish defense is not the most experienced group, but goalkeeper and vice captain Andreas Isaksson does have 121 caps to his name. These two sides have played relatively low-scoring games qualifying to date, and this trend should continue, so expect under 2.5 goals to be scored. Russia will be keen to get a victory in its first match under its new boss, but Sweden has the game’s only transcendent talent, and for this reason Ibrahimović and company will leave Russia with a victory by a likely score of 1-0.