Scout Notes – Euro 2012 Friendlies

Dick Advocaat’s Russia fail to break down a stubborn Lithuania. The Republic of Ireland rack up the goals against a Tuscan Select XI, Ashley Young misses England training with a minor knock, while Thomas Sorensen pulls out of Denmark’s final 23 man squad with a back injury:

Lithuania 0 Russia 0
Dick Advocaat made three changes from the side that drew at home with Uruguay on Friday evening for last night’s match against Lithuania. Igor Akinfeev took over from Vyacheslav Malafeev in goal, Dmitri Kombarov started ahead of Yuri Zhirkov at left-back before being replaced at half-time, while Aleksandr Kerzhakov took the place of Pavel Pogrebnyak in the lone striker role. Alan Dzagoev also appeared in place of Marat Izmailov for the second 45, as he stepped up his recovery from injury. Fantasy owners of Roman Shirokov will be keen to discover the extent of the injury that forced the midfielder off on 73 minutes – priced at 6.0 in the McDonald’s game, he’s already in over 7% of teams thus far.

Last night’s line-up arguably contained nine of Advocaat’s strongest XI, then, with Dzagoev and Zhirkov the two glaring omissions but despite making four changes after the break and five overall, Russia failed to make the breakthrough – Advocaat will be far from happy with two draws and a single goal scored from a couple of friendlies thus far. The only positive was the clean sheet, though the Russia manager revealed he has still to make a decision over who will be his first-choice keeper – with Akinfeev having only returned from a long injury lay-off, Malafeev has been afforded a run of games over the last few months and his displays have clearly given Advocaat food for thought:

I’m taking advice from goalkeeping coach Sergey Ovchinnikov. It’s ultimately my decision and you’ll find out who’ll be the No1 ahead of the opening group game with the Czech Republic.

Russia Starting XI: Akinfeev; Anyukov, Ignashevich, Berezutsky, Kombarov (Zhirkov 46); Denisov, Zyryanov (Kokorin 46), Shirokov (Semshov 73); Izmailov (Dzagoev 46), Kerzhakov (Pavlyuchenko 46), Arshavin.

Other News
Thomas Sorensen has been ruled out of Denmark’s Euro 2012 campaign. The Stoke stopper picked up a back problem in the weekend defeat by Brazil and was replaced by Kasper Schmeichel in Morten Olsen’s final 23 yesterday morning. The news means that all three of Denmark’s keepers in the McDonald’s game are priced at 4.0, offering Fantasy managers a cheap route into their defence – the downside is their trio of opponents are Portugal, Germany and Holland, making clean sheet returns unlikely. While Anders Lindegaard is the favoured pick of the Danish public, according to a recent poll, the United man admitted he is not quite 100%, after being sidelined for the last couple of months of the previous campaign:

I’m still short in a few little areas, but it will come and then it will all work out for me. If I make it work I know I’m the best.

Ashley Young missed England training yesterday after picking up a minor knock, though the FA confirmed it’s not a serious problem. Roy Hodgson received some positive news as Glen Johnson and Danny Welbeck were able to take some part in training for the first time yesterday as the preparations for Saturday’s game with Belgium got underway.

The Republic of Ireland were handed a chance to rack up the goals in a run out against a Tuscany Select XI. Robbie Keane grabbed a double, while his strike partner Simon Cox picked up a goal and assist in the comfortable 5-0 win. Giovanni Trapattoni watched on as his other two strikers, Shane Long and Jon Walters, also managed to find the net after both came on as second half subs. James McClean was handed another start, with Stephen Hunt on the right flank, though the Sunderland man made way at half-time as Trapattoni rang the changes.