Russia remains second in their qualifying group, just one point behind Germany, and their only chance of the automatic qualification to South Africa is a win against Joachim Löw’s men at Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium.

If Hiddink’s team fails to achieve the needed result, the Dutchman was pleased to find out that “FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced that, even if Russia will end up second in the group, it would be seeded. And it is good news, for until that moment we never knew whether seeding would take place,” he said.

“And it was unusual to learn such things not at the start but at the end of qualification. All teams that are second-best in their groups are all very competitive and the decision of FIFA does not mean that the seeded will surely win. Though I will not deny that this news did not leave me indifferent,” the 62-year-old warned.

Hopes for a good result in something Hiddink called the most important match played in European football until the end of the qualifying campaign are high. The coach hopes that Russia will be supported as fiercely as in the must-win game against England in 2007.

The other reason for optimism is that the team’s captain, Arsenal’s Andrey Arshavin, is fit and ready for action.

“I’m happy that Arshavin returned to the squad, played the entire match for Arsenal in the Champions League and appeared in the starting eleven in the English Premier League,” Hiddink said.