Robson's plastic pitch fears for England
The Sheffield United manager, who won 90 senior caps for his country, fully expects his country to qualify for next year's finals.
But he believes the artificial surface at Moscow's Luzhniki Olympic Arena has left the outcome of this afternoon's game hanging in the balance.
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But Robson said: "Make no mistake that pitch is going to make things difficult.
"I'm sure the lads will go through but something like this can be a great leveller.
"Synthetic surfaces are horrible to play on because they make it so hard to read the game and it seems as if every one is different.
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Hide Ad"We had a few of them over here a while back at Oldham, QPR and Preston but they quickly seemed to go out of fashion.
"It's hard enough going over to Russia as it is but we are still capable of winning the game and I'm sure everything will go well."
Robson, who captained England 65 times during an illustrious international career which took him to three World Cup Finals, faced the former Soviet Union twice as a player.