this is eight years in the making and now we're just one hour to wait until the first kickoff in the twenty eight hundred fifty four world cup in russia wherever there's a match parties go. back to stadiums and fans all eyes are on the pitch the players from across the country on the planet and our special studios from the. a warm welcome to all of you for world cup twenty eight in russia. fans from across the globe have been out in force in moscow reveling in the festive atmosphere.

we have unique insight and analysis from one of the best minds in the game manchester united manager joint. news center in moscow this thursday june fourteenth you can get up to speed on all the global developments at r.t. dot com right now though it's fifty nine minutes and counting until the opening match in global football's signature event about half the planet is expected to watch the twenty eighteen feet for world cup here in russia over the next five or so weeks team are primed and ready to bring you the best of the atmosphere from all of the host cities so live now to a world cup overlooking central moscow. there

are just fifty eight minutes to go to school up in russia itself you're watching our special coverage with people like you peter schmeichel. josie marino. it's now come down to starting to force the gang fresh healthy back out with our analysis we're going to russia and saudi arabian nights because they say it is a christian gang and the same sheikhs just cannot get the team and you know we've been speculating about this team all day. the manager going to go with three of the pack for the pack of the five of the pack is even mentioned in some news reports but he's chosen to pack for cisco obviously of course i can five isn't golf and this who was one of the players in doubt is playing right back. not to share it's that he sees it's a center half with qubits off. and then see it off which is a little bit of a surprise to me is playing the left back in

a back four i decide is what we think is the net to play midfield in front of that back for being in against inskeep and then three players again in front of those golovin. and some of the off behind the picks the smaller so in your opinion i mean not looks like stanny is france russia manager he's going for winter night would you say looking at that was it hard to say he might as well i mean this is one of the speculation this is going to go is going to tighten up the defense is going to work and that is going to make sure he gets point you know i think you play the sixty seventh country ranked in the world i know russia was ranked below that seventeen but she heads of matches but with here you play a team that is sixty seventh in the in the world you play at home you're playing in front of your own crowd in your own stadium yet i don't think it's a complete go forward because you know it looks a little bit cautious with the two midfield players sitting in front of the back

four but when you look at the it off with a laugh when back when you look at him playing the actual left back in fall that you think he wants to attack and then. i hope it's like that because that for the neutral football fan and gives a much better spectacle ok let's see what jason ringing i said about this has been a lot of negativity in the russian press but he says that we get all that russia will win. if i was. checkers of i hope by sharing isn't a not so not so wrong i'll be happy because. no expectations no positivity no optimism everybody expects the world and it can be in this moment in his or tell me this year's preparing everybody for that. for their country pride well let's put that let's do it for the country let's do it for ourselves let's do it against the ones that don't

believe in don't believe in so i think can be can be a good thing for them you want my personal opinion i give them my personal opinion i think that is a little bit of identity crisis in the russian team we are used at least i think my generation used to have. the russian teams with a certain identity i think they lost a little bit of that identity that in the search of that talent is not in men's. but they have enough they have enough to win tonight they have enough to those through the the group phase and of course later you will get the teams more talented with the probably the best the best teams in you know the best teams in south america and then becomes a huge a huge challenge but i would say that russia has has enough has enough to get.

i would say probably the five points that you need to qualify. ok service doesn't mean you're talking at me. earlier this afternoon before this massive match russia against saudi arabia he also mentioned the importance of being mentally strong an awful lot of pressure is on the russian team and i've read what he says like i'm supposed and it's strange why that can affect cheating counting as a lot of pressure on russia as a nation you know everybody will be looking at russia today so i think every russian person will feel that kind of pressure you know we want to show our country from the side we want to show that we we can produce this credible tournament so everybody who comes here will have a great time and everybody that's watching will watch great football and of course that that that will affect the players in some way because they are the eleven place a place today are the ones that actually have the real responsibility. but as i said in the last hour i think everyone can play

a part in this i think you know when you go when you go on the pitch and you're a little bit uncertain about what your level is joseph spoke about identity what is our identity how is our brand of football and how could we all those questions you'll bring them on the page and the one thing you don't want to issue here your own fans booing you want not be happy with you so you know if the russian fans are supporting russia today. understanding that this is an opening game was so much pressure so it's going to be difficult for the players regardless of who they play who they would have played. then i think the players will feel more at ease say they know their loved one your loved you know you perform any we need to that level you need and it's start a simpler set but it really is if you get support you always do better and it doesn't matter what it is any lease of life if you're sporting you always feel more comfortable and happy you're doing it so the russian fans everywhere the media everyone plays a part in this today

a quick word about saudi arabia so then the press office and i mean i can. they play the opening game as well everyone. looking at saudi arabia everybody thinks that this is going to be i win for russia i've played saudi arabia in the first game in a world cup twenty years ago it wasn't the opening game of the world cups but it was the opening game for us and i can tell you that was not an easy game we were struggling and they were very compact they paid defensively really well can i tell you the ok for that's a pretty good point when you play i said i think russia is pulpy in galaxy around fifteen in the world so when you play fifteenth in the world against sixty seven there is a difference and that difference is because of the breaking point right and that's some point in the game where you have to take advantage and for saudi arabia it's all about surviving that point it's difficult for the because everybody thinks

russia is going to do it sure i can be taught about russian fans and how many there are plenty of society say you because fans are arriving to believe me the stadium as we speak and we have a look at all the side fans that if travelled down there as well. i i well here they are it looks like heaven now putting on a strong showing doesn't look like my power finds out the way the world cup these days have thousands of turned out enjoying that kind of atmosphere. the tournament opening ceremony starts in minutes with a cultural showcase of all things russian involving more than five hundred performances and a pretty spot robbie williams he is headlining this news nagy will also of course host the competitions file and final nights on july the fifteenth.

i'd like to tell you how safety has waiting outside the luzhniki stadium he brought us this report on the atmosphere head of the first. seven and a half years ago on a cold december night on december third and i know this day very well because it was twenty four hours before i actually got married i was standing here reporting on russia's bit for the world cup twenty eight hundred not one soul among our crew not one soul in the press believed that we would actually get it and now it's

becoming reality it says right here on the loose at the stadium the world cup swaying to eighteen feet in russia the atmosphere here is absolutely electrifying a lot of fans different languages different makes and that's what it's all about obviously the world cup so for the last several days the city has been filled with fans from all over the world if you're feeling down for any reason just go to the rescue area you can see for yourself everywhere right so do your abs. guys are optimistic guys are optimistic. you see that energy here but yesterday i went in the streets of moscow. and if you want to see more of that energy check out my high energy report from the rest well. i was. caught.

he. ok ok ok breaking news moscow has been taken over by friendly forces meeting fans from all over the world and i'm here on a mission chanting as part of football culture and i want to learn chance from different parts of the world. i don't know exactly what these guys a chance are usually but i know the channel which will make them happy guyse most books up close how good they can get i'm going to michigan you teach many of the egyptian chance if. i was. young. i am going to get to know i mean i thought that i did i know met a oh messi oh my god up there in the circle prop

a stop drop a fan stop. the because the. heat of the. shot. you know. i wonder what they will be chanting tonight. the cars off. the road. ok the ruby in france in moscow one of the largest representations. yet simplest one. seems like you are. you had a really good time let me check you

a little bit about the russian team here because the way i'm reading it there is a certain amount of doubt about how russia going to line up today and then i asked couple of games he's changed the system to place three of the back. but they still conceded goals do you know what have you got any ideas like you heard from anyone how they're going to line up today well that's part of the mystery surrounding the russian national team because the last friendly that russian team had against turkey last week we expected something close to the strongest eleven the russian mayfield but chess of continue to experiment line up was told it different to that three at the back as well so tonight is a big mystery of course i would say that it's a one hundred percent certainty that the likes of field the smell of alexander the good and probably even if we'll start in the first line up the biggest mystery is the defense of course whether that would be a spot that moscow squitti up of whether that would be further could show off or

the veteran. who came back out of retirement of international football to play for russia during the world cup that is of course yet to be determined i would say probably reasonable to play the brazilian model fernandez who actually got brazilian passed but you want to play for the russian national team and got a russian citizenship he was one of the strongest last season of the season before that where the church asked if we trust him enough to put him in the back for back three for that matter that's of course a big question. apologize for this was obviously prerecorded from from an hour ago you had to go inside he was reporting from good predictions i didn't aoyama kind of let me just repeat we got the official saying she was going through it so it is of course i can fire you have in the gulf and then this. he said was national next year he says surprises me still yet it's thirty nine now but he came back from a time after an injury to another planet and i think that but for must be well over

a hundred years old i'm not sure that's a good sign off and see if that's a surprise for me that his plane left back in the back and then been in. live in. summit off and then swallowed a fracture that is the official team. but he did it actually he did pretty well there alexy fair play to him even got. off and i know it's not nailed on yeah he was but it ok all right so just forty five minutes to go in for this match itself train russia and saudi arabia before this match somehow we managed to get an interview with jonathan tino he's the head of faith we spoke to him today for trying to manage to get in for. this be in moscow did you finally get a feeling that this opening ceremony in the first game will be the best ever is not the kind of atmosphere that you see. the whole world cup will be the best ever i'm sure when i see that and then to see as and. when i see how russia is prepared.

moscow's prepared for this game how everyone is looking forward to that. i'm convinced you can it's possibly a final message for the fans we're going to see the game at luzhniki and the fans everywhere else in russia who will definitely want russia to win their first game. you know enjoy every second of it supports your team for. then you know the pitch the sights but the motivation certainly there thank you very much thank you very much for the best interest unless speaking to us here now c.n.n. just before the game we also saw didn't we before this world cup offer some of the best place here and there seems to be so many of them in here you are you're playing. well the obvious ones i mean you're always going to be interesting in players like ronaldo messi name our thing name has a lot to prove i think he was billed as

a big big league player in the in the two thousand and fourteen world cup in brazil and unfortunately had the incident wait wait broke a bone in his ears back but even up to that point wasn't really producing the quality that we've seen them up which is afterwards so i think for him he's got to carry the whole brazil team i think it's a very important tournament and of course. he's taken the premier league by storm this year player of the year. and you know he's injured he will put we always not going to play in the first game which is tomorrow against uruguay but he should be fit for the second game so these are the players we have to look for a luxury talents ok let's just run through them some more of the people we have to see this world cup some of the starr. live at.

the end. s. . and these are the players that i stay talked about before but there are more players that i would. keep an eye and one of them is a fellow damon it's christian arabs and i think you know the quality that he chose for tottenham. and all the rumors that going on around his future boss a loner pounding chasing him very hard he is a player to watch and he can make a difference for them and mass market watch it he talked about the young daniel zani a player that i was not aware of a month ago but a month ago i was speaking to his melbourne coach and he said you have to keep an

eye on this guy he might not be in the world cup but the coaches actually picked him he was picked for the twenty six and he's come out of nothing but an amazing story he's an iranian refugee who hasn't been through any football academy this is just ruled talent so so warren joyce was the melbourne coach has actually picked him off the street and taking him in and he's now he's now playing in obviously every time for melbourne but he's also in the twenty three man squad and he came on in they played and with twenty minutes ago and he basically had people out of the seat as mark bosnich was telling us before and i've only seen clips of it but the clips of i watched which are many. he looks like it's not pretty credible to and he said little bit like ryan giggs the way he triples but he's a more physical player and he's he's young nineteen years of age very unimpressive doesn't know all the dangers and and whatever you can get. some feel he's playing

trying to pick someone up. not very clever but he's definitely someone if he gets playing time who will be an interesting thing interesting player to watch and my information about him from again from from melbourne is that manchester city the only signs the best players in the world they've been trying to sign and so this is a very special player a young player that's worth while keeping an eye out for you you can definitely want to watch also watching today's game not just people down here. twenty people they're going to take this from the international space station wishing russia all the best. friends. of one those of most popular sports on the plane it will start soon this is a huge event which we will watch closer live from on board the international space station this week that is the all participants of zicam p.t.'s and.

first. before this is even takes office will come a big shock wasn't. talking about it just what a day or so ago spain coach a day before the world cup so. it's it's a story that's going to just carry on from this work of this absolutely no doubt about that we we talked about it all day yesterday we're going to continue talking about it today and tomorrow spain play the european champions tribals the neighbors from portugal with a shirt burned out of place in spain. and of course we're going to talk about it tomorrow and after the games going to talk about regardless of the result this is not going to go away this is something where i think this is the spanish players who are very used to winning big trophies and competing right to the end of every tournament they they really feel that this is some annoyance that could have been without being very interesting you should side up because i was talking to you. too about this he told me that actually he believes the players that spain have

a so good perhaps he won't have a big impact listen to what he said. tomorrow i think anything can happen we portray go we feel confident enough to play against spain and try to win but i know that's been the quality and the class of the players they have they also feel confident that they can beat anyone and there's a fan i want to be. held if we lose against. but i would not also be you have a need for beats me i think we are going to qualify. because we have two of the strongest teams in the competition it is the pick of the year of the bunch isn't it at the moment what did you make here is the fact that spain sent their manager yesterday just two days before this match and now a sink is a strange situation i don't know if spain's the manager of

if the manager second self we. there we everything happened between himself and and real madrid i feel sorry for the manager of course because the you went with the team for the last. two years and of course he would deserve to be with the team but i also understand the position of. of the for the rishon they just gave him a new contract for the future if you see what i read that the president of the for the mission was informed a couple of minutes before the club makes official is a strange process what i feel is there is a national team with such such a quality and such a maturity and such an understanding that the majority of the players belong to real madrid's too. but so long are some. top class players with a philosophy of play that comes since louie's are gone as so many years and then

get so many years so i think the fact that he is not on the bench and is for another year on a story i don't think is going to make a huge difference. there's no doubt that lewis will be alice who's only been in his job as president for the spanish football federation for one month since may the seventeenth when he was elected but he's made a name for himself in the world of football by sacking a julian look at tiki. and i just want to pick up on a on a point that josie makes and that the players won't be bothered because sepic strong and i know he's obviously worked with quite a lot of them when he was coach from a from real madrid i agree but then i have a small disagreement in that statement because it will be positive not not for the game for ninety minutes on absolutely sure they can keep their concentration. but they will be asked about this every day and this is not going to go away and. not

out of the world cup on tour after work up and maybe even carry on after the world cup because obviously there's a new coach that's going to come in and this situation is so unique it's never happened before i can't remember anything like this has ever happened i feel this kalen at this time the timing and and what we haven't mentioned today i just want to make that point is that a union look at is a successful manager he's been european champions with the under nineteenth in the under twenty one's of spain he's gone supporter while he was in so successful future the way he was playing the tickets actually came back and managed spain for twenty matches won fourteen of them and joe a jew six of them so this is a guy who could actually make spain world champion that's how he's paid the pedigree in the solidness of him is. so so this situation i'm saying it's not going to go away the players are going to be asked about it and they will be bothered

about it because it's a it's an annoying and when you say hasta back seeming just so people came they have to face the press new for not it's not just playing football is it the way it works is that every day. regulation every day you have to you know make players available for fifteen minutes before every training then. video for talk with an ever they can have fifteen minutes after the training i think the reporters can watch the training for fifteen minutes and before the game before you have an hour which is enough issue a press conference and then every. you have to go through as a player you have to go through one player has to go to the press conference and the battle goes well so the media is there every day so you can imagine be enough apart this every day will be an annoyance i say to the players and they will be bothered about this because they could do nothing to make this go away after that do nothing this is a good story and if that's what it though that's a practice or that's what we're talking about it i think banks we can go to sochi now where that game is going to get played portugal and spain that's taking place

tomorrow down there forces a part for enjoying some sub tropical sunshine i think a day you that. but you managed to come to us to some perfect timing actually because just in the background as you can see the fish stadium behind me they were just testing the p.a.'s announcement system and then over in the skies well we had a helicopter go over and then we have a few guys on motorbikes doing some testing down here so i think that's the kind of activity we have here in the preparations in that run up to that key match between portugal and spain at the moment everything is rather quiet because a lot of the fans are over in the fan zone which is a further along as you go towards the sort of old city of sochi but here we are in the olympic park in a sweltering limpy poppy jaime the fish stadium that used to be it was the iconic venue for the opening and closing the twenty fourteen sochi olympics is now as i say going to be that key venue for the match between portugal and spain and also that's going to be one of the four group matches plus a couple of the knockout matches as well beautiful location here to say it's pretty hot i mean it's going to be pretty hot depending on what happens between portugal

spain as well as we head you know look at taking has been sacked just two days before the world cup began i think if you are if fans might be able to relate to that in terms of roy keane and what happened there but the spanish nonesuch as we have seen there congregating round by spain's hotel where the spanish team a coming in they're actually staying at class and go too far away from here they were coming in early ahead of the match but their fans a fuse in there a few sort of diehards were there with their flags and they seem to think that there was going to be no effect on the teams tour we had from jos a marine you are. he said he doesn't think it's going to have any bearing on the spanish team but i wonder what the reaction of some of the portugal fans will be will receive we can see some of those a little bit later but let us say such a still absolutely balmy and beautiful really high temperatures here and just behind the fish is actually the black sea so you get a lovely seaside venue and plenty of pas along by the sea side where you can go celebrate maybe try new sorrows in this lovely southern russian black sea which. looks fantastic and you run for millions of russian hosting the world cup is

a dream come true for that hasn't always been the case it took a bit of grit and determination to get the beautiful game established here in the first place to manage to trace the roots of the game in russia and it leads to of all places scott look here is not the two of them. the end of the nineteenth century saw the russian empires first official football match it was played as a hippodrome in st petersburg in between horseracing the public reaction that it wasn't such a beautiful game. gentlemen sportsmen in white outfits were running round in the mud splashing down with full force in the dirt and soon turned into chimney sweeps there was unrelenting laughter among the public. over a decade later things began to change football started to gain a foothold in russia but not without some serious help.