The Northern Ireland side have travelled to Moscow to take on Russia at the Lokomotiv Stadium in their opening World Cup qualifier.

"I know the players, it is my job and I need to know. But I do not speak about individual players - prefer to speak about the team, I don't single them out," Capello said.

"In my mind, I always try to look forward, to achieve. I hope the next result will be really, really good."

The fixture will be Capello's first competitive game in charge of Russia since quitting as England boss in the wake of John Terry being stripped of his captaincy.

"I left England, but you know why. Because of respect. Only this," the Italian said, refusing to be drawn further on the subject.

Russia have a new manager now, so they'll be out to impress and lay down a marker.

Chris Brunt

Capello is instead firmly focused on the task in hand.

"Our team is a good team - in the Euros we played some games really well and I want to see the same spirit and style. If we play at that level, the result will be okay," he said.

His Northern Ireland counterpart Michael O'Neill is also taking charge of his side for the first time competitively, with the team hoping for a morale-boosting performance.

"We want to get a positive performance in Moscow. Russia is a difficult place to get a result, but our focus is on a positive performance," midfielder Chris Brunt said.

"We need a good performance going into Tuesday against Luxembourg."

His teammate Corry Evans was also under no illusions about Northern Ireland's under-dog status.

I see no reason why we can't come away with something from Moscow.

Corry Evans

"We know it will take a heroic performance and that the Russians are going to have a lot of possession, move the ball quickly and have a huge home crowd behind them," he said.

"But it's up to us to break down their play and take our chances when they arrive.

"There is a greater expectation on the Russians at home; they need to deal with that and we need to add to their pressure then take advantage."

Northern Ireland will be without the services of Paddy McCourt, Shane Ferguson and Martin Paterson, who are all out through injury.

Sammy Clingan has been drafted in as cover, while Ferguson and Paterson will be assessed at the weekend and could return to fitness in time for Tuesday's game against Luxembourg at Windsor.

Meanwhile, Russia are missing injured striker Artem Dzyuba - having already decided to leave out Andrei Arshavin, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Pavel Pogrebnyak.