Russia

Guus Hiddink is known to have performed miracles on more than one occasion. He has won league and European Cup titles at the club level, and has produced splendid results in the last three World Cups with Holland, South Korea and Australia. Russia will now hope that their 61-year-old manager will rub his charm once more.

He inherited a Russian squad up against with both Croatia and England just to get into the Euro finals, but once again Hiddink got the job done. The onus would be on him to carry the Russians into the last eight from a group that includes Spain, defending champions Greece and Sweden.

Spain are considered the favorites to win the group. The Rssians would be bracing up to slug it out for the second spot.

The squad is made up almost entirely of players from the Russian Premier League, which has become one of the most improved leagues in Europe.

Captain Andrei Arshavin has become a hot commodity around Europe after he helped Zenit St. Petersburg capture the UEFA Cup this past season, but he will miss the team's first two games through suspension.

Strikers Pavel Pogrebnyak, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Alexei Berezutsky are some of the players expected to carry a bulk of their nations aspirations.