Euro 2012

Slovakia

Manager: Vladimir Weiss Sr

World ranking: 27

Slovakia surprised a lot of people in the World Cup with their terrific 3-2 victory over Italy. They were impressive in qualifying too, topping their group thanks to away victories over Poland, the Czech Republic and Northern Ireland. They have a young team, that includes Fenerbache's Miroslav Stoch and Manchester City's Vladimir Weiss Jr. The manager's son did well on loan to Owen Coyle's Bolton last season, and was very impressive in his debut for Glasgow Rangers this season against Hibernian.

The Slovaks are strong in defence, with Liverpool's Martin Skrtel forming a good partnership with Lokomotiv Moscow's Jan Durica (they conceded just ten goals in their last qualifying campaign). Robert Vittek was on fire in the World Cup with four goals. Their best player is Marek Hamsik, who has been one of the best players in Serie A for the last few years.

If there is any consolation for Ireland, however, they finished ahead of Slovakia in the qualifiers for Euro 2008. And that was with Steve Staunton as manager.

Star player: Marek Hamsik

Hamsik is more than just silly hair and tattoos; the dynamic 22-year-old had an excellent season for Napoli in 2009-2010, scoring 12 league goals from midfield. He has been the top scorer at his club three years running, and has been named Slovakian Young Player of the Year twice.

Fixtures against Ireland:

Home: 12 October 2010: Štadión pod Dubňom, Žilina

Away: 2 September 2011: Aviva Stadium, Dublin

Russia

Manager: Dick Advocaat

World ranking: 16

Russia were impressive in qualifying to a point, garnering 22 points - a total that would have been good enough to win four of the other eight groups. In fact, the only two matches they lost were against Germany - who went on to be exceptional in the World Cup. It was a shock of incredible proportions when they were defeated by little Slovenia in a playoff; a result you could possibly put down to complacency. Russia didn't become a bad team overnight, however; they have a team littered with top class players - which is the least you would expect from a country with a population of 147 million to draw from.

Igor Akinfeev is a world class goalkeeper who has frequently been a target for Manchester United. In defence, there's the Berezutski brothers, Chelsea's Yuri Zhirkov, and Denis Kolodin, who is exceptional at shooting from long distances, while they also boast the attacking talents of Andrei Arshavin, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Stuttgart's Pavel Pogrebnyak. They are also managed by former Rangers boss Dick Advocaat, who led Zenit St Petersburg to the league title in 2007, and the UEFA Cup in 2008.

Ireland's away match against them will take place almost exactly a year from now. The Russian autumn isn't as severe as its winter, though temperatures in Moscow can still get as low as -9c in September.

Star player: Andrei Arshavin (below)

The 2006 Russian player of the year and 2008 Ballon D'or nominee has started the season well for Arsenal, scoring two goals in the first three matches.

Fixtures against Ireland:

Away: 8 October 2010: Aviva Stadium, Dublin.

Home: 6 September 2011: Stadium TBA

Follow JOE's live tracker of today's match between Ireland and Armenia, from 3pm in our football section.