Script: Having just been beaten by Austria 1-0, a defeat on Saturday at the Luzhniki Stadium against Sweden could see Russia lose touch with the two Euro2016 automatic qualifying spots.

Austria are riding a five-match winning steak in qualifying and lead the group with 16 points from six games, ahead of Sweden with 12 and Russia with eight.

Leonid Slutsky took temporary charge of the national team last month following the departure of Fabio Capello.

He will start his tenure with a difficult home game against the Swedes:

"Any coach tries to influence the team, even in the shortest period of time (on the job). It's clear that to do this is quite difficult, yet nonetheless I was fully aware of the time that was given to me to prepare for the most important match. So I made an attempt to compress in this time slot as much as possible of what I wanted to bring to the players."

And Russian National Team Captain, Roman Shirokov, has faith that the public will continue fighting for their team:

"It will play one of the most important roles because the stadium will be fully packed and will help drive us forward."

A positive result on Saturday could give Russia the momentum to pull off its campaign in their remaining fixtures.