Football
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Russia weighing up Fabio Capello dismissal after Austria loss

MOSCOW -- The Russian Football Union (RFS) is considering whether to sack national coach Fabio Capello after a 1-0 loss to Austria seriously dented the team's hopes of qualifying for Euro 2016.

After Sunday's home defeat left Russia third in their qualifying group, RFS acting president Nikita Simonyan told the R-Sport agency that the body "will discuss" whether to remove Capello from his role.

The Italian has coached Russia since 2012 and was handed a four-year contract extension last year to lead the nation through to 2018's home World Cup, although recent results have been poor.

Russia have won just two of their last 10 competitive games, with one victory coming against Liechtenstein and the other awarded by default when a match against Montenegro was abandoned due to crowd trouble.

Speaking after Sunday's loss to Austria, Capello suggested the slower pace of the Russian Premier League had contributed to the defeat.

"In the first half, we were unable to play, we were under pressure and we could not cope with our opponents' good physical preparation. In the second half, we matched them on the pitch and had chances to score, but we had no luck," he is quoted as saying by UEFA.

"Austria are a very good opponent, which their points tally and the fact they are group leaders shows. However, the only thing we lacked today was the goal we couldn't score. It's very difficult to play at a high speed when the teams in the Russian championship play at a lower speed. It's a habit. It's impossible to play in the Russian league at one pace and play much faster at European level.

"I'm open to criticism when it's valid. It's part of my job. I understand that journalists have to write about me, but the main thing is that criticism needs to be constructive."

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