Russia vs Korea Rep. - Weds 18 June, 05:00 am, - Match Thread

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Russia vs Korea Rep.

Weds 18 June, 05:00 am Bangkok time GMT+7 - Match Thread

Venue: Arena Pantanal, Cuiaba

Group Stage: Group H

Take part in the pre-match build up, match discussion, goals and more with Thaivisa

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Russia of course with out their hugely influential captain Romain Shirokov who suffered a knee injury just before the finals, ruling him out of the whole tournament.

Russia are coached by ex-England manager Fabio Capello, who may have somewhat of a point to prove after only managing to guide his England side to one single victory at the 2010 finals in South Africa.

This young Korea side have nothing to prove, with the national team still very much in development as the popularity of football continues to grow in Asia. That said, this is South Korea's eight consecutive World Cup finals but they have only managed to get beyond the grow stages on two occasions, in 2010 and also in 2002 where they were one of the host nations and then managed by Guus Hiddink,

[RickBradford]

Russia have a habit of starting off their tournaments in eye-catching style -- both good and bad -- though the dour Capello may have dampened their Cossack spirit to a certain extent.

I'm going for two probable scorelines: 6-1 to Russia or 4-1 to South Korea....