Hiddink hands youngsters a chance

Russia coach Guus Hiddink has included five uncapped players in his 23-man squad for the UEFA EURO 2008™ Group E qualifier against F.Y.R. Macedonia in Skopje on 15 November.

New names
Hiddink has raised eyebrows by selecting 20-year-old PFC CSKA Moskva defender Ivan Taranov and 19-year-old FC Spartak Moskva prodigy Roman Shishkin. In addition to Shishkin, two more Spartak youngsters, 20-year-old midfielder Aleksei Rebko and 22-year-old winger Dmitri Torbinskiy, have received call-ups. Igor Denisov, a 22-year-old midfielder from FC Zenit St. Petersburg, has also been rewarded. However, Hiddink has left out veteran midfielders Dmitri Loskov, Vladislav Radimov and Aleksei Smertin, while Marat Izmailov is unavailable through illness.

Russia squad
Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (PFC CSKA Moskva), Dmitri Borodin (FC Torpedo Moskva), Viacheslav Malafeev (FC Zenit St. Petersburg).

Defenders: Aleksei Berezutskiy (PFC CSKA Moskva), Vasili Berezutskiy (PFC CSKA Moskva), Sergei Ignashevich (PFC CSKA Moskva), Ivan Taranov (PFC CSKA Moskva), Denis Kolodin (FC Dinamo Moskva), Roman Shishkin (FC Spartak Moskva).

Midfielders: Evgeni Aldonin (PFC CSKA Moskva), Yuri Zhirkov (PFC CSKA Moskva), Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (FC Lokomotiv Moskva), Vladimir Bystrov (FC Spartak Moskva), Aleksei Rebko (FC Spartak Moskva), Yegor Titov (FC Spartak Moskva), Dmitri Torbinskiy (FC Spartak Moskva), Igor Denisov (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Igor Semshov (FC Dinamo Moskva).

Forwards: Andrei Arshavin (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Roman Pavlyuchenko (FC Spartak Moskva), Pavel Pogrebnyak (FC Tom Tomsk), Ivan Saenko (1. FC Nürnberg), Dmitri Sychev (FC Lokomotiv Moskva).