MOSCOW, January 9 (R-Sport) – Russia will treat the football World Cup as a means to gain experience for “the real thing,” when it hosts the tournament in 2018, coach Fabio Capello has said in a sober evaluation of the team's chances this summer.
Russia’s last World Cup appearance came in 2002, and reaching the Euro 2008 semifinals remains the country’s only significant international achievement in the sport since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“Before this, we hadn't qualified for a World Cup in 12 years. Brazil 2014 will help us gain experience of the real thing ahead of the following World Cup in Russia, so we'll go to Brazil with a lot of commitment and the desire to play a good tournament,” Capello said on the FIFA website.
“But although our main objective will be for our players to amass a huge amount of experience, that won't stop us from being ambitious.”
Russia’s immediate priority is to get out of a group featuring Belgium, Algeria and South Korea and Capello suggested he was not setting his sights much higher. There was no mention of the quarterfinal target he set his team in October.
“Naturally, our ambition is to go as far as possible, but knowing how tough it is to get out of the group phase, experiencing that will give our players a full understanding of that particular challenge,” the former England manager said.
“The most important thing will be to arrive there with a winning mentality and the desire to come away with a lot of experience.”
Russian football authorities have made it clear that they want Capello to stay for the country’s 2018 World Cup and contract talks have been going on since early November.
The 67-year-old Italian has yet to sign an extension despite repeated assurances from Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko that he is on the verge of doing so.
Capello took charge of Russia in July 2012 on a two-year contract worth a reported five million euros a year.
After Russia won World Cup qualifying Group F by a point over Portugal, Capello had been linked with a number of jobs at club and country level across Europe.
