Russia coach Guus Hiddink has named a virtually unchanged squad for the decisive Euro 2008 qualifier against England, despite being thoroughly outplayed by the same opponents last month at Wembley.
England leapfrogged Russia into second place behind pacesetters Croatia after beating them 3-0 at Wembley on September 12.
Provided they beat Estonia at home on October 13, the English can afford to draw their last two games, in Russia and at home to Croatia, and still qualify, while the Russians must beat England to have a chance of reaching next year’s finals.
“We don’t have that many players to choose from, making our options limited,” Hiddink said.
The only notable absentee was Spartak Moscow winger Vladimir Bystrov, who is out for the rest of the year after suffering a ligament tear in his left knee two weeks ago.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Vyacheslav Malafeyev (Zenit St Petersburg), Vladimir Gabulov (Kuban Krasnodar), Anton Shunin (Dynamo Moscow)
Defenders: Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Alexei Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), Vasily Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St Petersburg), Denis Kolodin (Dynamo Moscow)
Midfielders: Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (Lokomotiv Moscow), Yuri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow), Igor Semshov (Dynamo Moscow), Dmitry Torbinsky (Spartak Moscow), Konstantin Zyryanov (Zenit St Petersburg)
Forwards: Andrei Arshavin (Zenit St Petersburg), Pavel Pogrebnyak (Zenit St Petersburg), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Spartak Moscow), Dmitry Sychev (Lokomotiv Moscow), Alexander Kerzhakov (Sevilla), Ivan Saenko (Nuremberg).
