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Russian football chief says national squad’s prime task is 'to qualify for 2020 Euro Cup’

Players of the Russian football team gathered early this week for a training camp in the Moscow Region’s town of Novogorsk ahead of their two international matches on Thursday and Sunday

© Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS

NOVOGORSK /Moscow Region/, March 19. /TASS/. The prime aim of the Russian national football team today is to qualify for the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup, Alexander Dyukov, the president of the Russian Football Union (RFU), said on Tuesday.

Players of the Russian national football team gathered early this week for a training camp in the Moscow Region’s town of Novogorsk ahead of their two international fixtures on Thursday and Sunday.

"I have met the team and spoke with the players," Dyukov told journalists. "The team is in high spirits and are in a serious tune for the upcoming matches."

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"Everyone in the team understands how important this tournament is [the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup] and how significant is to qualify for this championship," the RFU president said. "The prior task is to qualify and then play at the 2020 Euro Cup."

The Russian team is playing its 2020 UEFA Euro Cup qualifying matches against Belgium on March 21 in Brussels and against Kazakhstan on March 24 in Astana.

"We are set to play a tough match with Belgium," Dyukov said. "Perhaps, we should have started with a match against a team, which was not viewed as a favorite of the qualifying group, but our team’s performance in the [UEFA] Nations League proved that there are no top dogs for them."

The national teams of Russia and Belgium met the previous time playing a friendly in the Russian southern resort city of Sochi in March 2017. The hosting side was down 1-3 in the course of the match but managed to come back drawing the score at 3-3.

The matches of the 2020 Euro Cup will be held at stadiums in cities of 12 different European countries, namely in London (England), Munich (Germany), Rome (Italy), Baku (Azerbaijan), Saint Petersburg (Russia), Bucharest (Romania), Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Dublin (Ireland), Bilbao (Spain), Budapest (Hungary), Glasgow (Scotland) and Copenhagen (Denmark).

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The decision to hold the 2020 Euro Cup, which will be celebrating its 60th anniversary next year, in various European countries instead of in one or two hosting countries was made at the UEFA Executive Committee’s meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on December 6, 2012.

A total of 24 national football teams will be playing in the final tournament of the 2020 Euro Cup. All 55 UEFA national member teams, including 12 teams from the hosting countries, will have to play in the qualifying matches to vie for the berth in the final 24-team lineup of the quadrennial European football championship.

It is possible that some of the national teams from the hosting countries of the 2020 Euro Cup will not be playing on home soil in case they fail to clear the qualifying stage.

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