MOSCOW, September 17 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian national football team is the favorite in EUFA EURO 2016 qualification group G, Sweden's head coach Erik Hamren told journalists on Wednesday.
"We have big respect for Russia. They are number 1 ranked team in the group. They were the only team in the World Cup. So we are looking forward to a really tough game and have big respect for them. Russia has a lot of good players. You have a really strong team that is very hard to beat," Hamren said.
"We had a good start in my opinion, we had one point away versus Austria. It is a really strong team, especially at home, so I was happy with that point. Now we have the favorite in the group - Russia at home - so we'll see if we can have good result there, then we'll have a really good start," he added.
The Russian team has already gained four points after beating Liechtenstein 4-0. Russia will play Sweden on October 9. Later on, the Russian team will also have to face Montenegro, Austria and Moldova.
Hamren also stated that he keeps track of Swedish players performing in the Russian Premier league, including Kim Kallstrom, Pontus Wernbloom, and Andreas Granqvist.
"I think they are playing good in the clubs and their clubs have been successful so far in the league. Of course, I'm looking a lot at how they perform and at their clubs," Hamren added.
The prestigious UEFA European Championship-2016 is scheduled to take place in France on June 10-July 10, 2016. The final tournament will be contested by 24 teams. In order to get to the final stage, the teams will have to first pass through a qualifying round, which consists of eight groups of six teams and one group of five teams. Only 23 teams out of 53 will join France, the host country, in the final tournament.
