Russia readies for Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein

Sitting in second place of Group 4 in World Cup qualifying, Russia returns to play this Saturday against Azerbaijan and the following Wednesday against Liechtenstein. While Russia is heavily favoured in both matches they will need to be careful, particularly against Azerbaijan.

In speaking to Sports Express, Andrei Arshavin noted:

“I always want to score and Saturday is no exception. But moreover I want to win and it does not matter who is going to score in this case.”

Guus Hiddink has returned from Chelsea, serving double duties managing the English Premier League side and has selected the following squad with all but two players from the Russia Premier League, including six each from CSKA Moskva and Zenit Saint Petersburg:

Goalkeeper:
Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moskva), Vyacheslav Malafeev (Zenit St. Petersburg), Vladimir Gabulov (Dynamo Moskva)

Defenders:
Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moskva),Vasili Berezutski (CSKA Moskva), Aleksei Berezutski (CSKA Moskva), Yuri Zhirkov (CSKA Moskva), Denis Kolodin (Dynamo Moskva), Renat Yanbayev (Lokomotiv Moskva), Aleksandr Anyukov ( Zenit Saint Petersburg)

Midfielder:
Konstantin Zyryanov (Zenit Saint Petersburg),Igor Denisov (Zenit Saint Petersburg), Igor Semshov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (Lokomotiv Moskva), Dmitri Torbinski (Lokomotiv Moskva) Ivan Saenko (Spartak Moskva), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moskva), Sergey Semak (Rubin Kazan),

Strikers:
Dmitriy Sychev (Lokomotiv Moskva), Pavel Pogrebnyak (Zenit St. Petersburg), Andrei Arshavin (Arsenal), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Tottenham Hotspur)