Russia prepared for tight matches with Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ahead of the double header against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the qualification for EHF EURO 2014 in Denmark, the Russian national team coaching duo, Oleg Kuleshov and Alexander Rymanov, continue to rely on players who played a satisfying campaign at the 2013 World Championship in Spain.

After failing to qualify for the 2011 World Championship and subsequently for the London Olympic Games, Russia reached the quarter-finals in January.

Apart from Chekhovskie Medvedi right wing Daniil Shishkarev, who is suffering from a post-traumatic thrombosis of the right hand and will have an operation soon, all other players from the 2013 World Championship are in the squad.

While there are minimal changes in the squad compared to the tournament in Spain, the Russian coaches have also started to get young players closer to the national team.

New faces at the training camp ahead of the qualification matches were wing players Andrey Novoselov and Alexander Sanashkin (both HC Saint Petersburg), line player Pavel Maximov (Permskie Medvedi) and playmakers Inal Aflitulin (Motor Ukraine) and Sergey Kudinov (Zarya Kaspiya), the son of the two-time Olympic champion Vasily Kudinov.

The young Kudinov and Novoselov will join the national team for trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina where Russia will meet the hosts on 4 April.

Sanashkin and Maximov will meet their teammates again upon their return to start the preparations for the second encounter with Bosnia and Herzegovina on 7 April in the Russian city of Krasnodar.

Russia are currently ranked second in Group 7 of the EHF EURO 2014 qualification.

In the first qualification match against Serbia Russia lost 29:30, but four days later they outclassed Austria in Perm and took home a 38:31 victory.

Russia need two wins to make a huge step towards the qualification for the EHF EURO in Denmark.

However, coach Oleg Kuleshov emphasised that the opponent from Bosnia and Herzegovina has a very effective team and can cause a lot of problems.

They played on eye level with EHF EURO 2012 silver medallists, Serbia, for 40 minutes in the EHF EURO 2014 qualifcation match in autumn 2012 and showed a brilliant performance against Germany in the 2013 World Championship Play-Offs when they won the second leg 33:24.

The Russian roster for the EHF EURO 2014 qualification matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina

Goalkeepers: Vadim Bogdanov (Dinamo Minsk), Oleg Grams (Chekhovskie medvedi), Igor Levshin (Post Schwerin)

Field players: Konstantin Igropulo (Füchse Berlin), Egor Evdokimov, Sergey Gorbok, Sergey Shelmenko, Alexey Rastvortsev, Timur Dibirov, Dmitry Zhitnikov, Mikhail Chipurin (all – Chekhovskie Medvedi), Pavel Atman (Dinamo Minsk), Eldar Nasyrov, Alexander Pyshkin (HC Saint-Petersburg), Alexey Shindin (Permskie Medvedi).