The manager of Russia, Dick Advocaat, announced a 20 player squad for the EURO 2012 qualifiers against Macedonia and Ireland.

The Russian manager Dick Advocaat announced his squad today for the home matches against Macedonia on 2 September 2011 and Ireland four days later during the EURO 2012 qualifications.  Russia is currently in a three-team tie for first place along with Ireland and Slovakia as each team has 13 points after six games.

As for Macedonia, this game will mark the debut of new manager John Toshack.  Toshack should announce the Macedonia squad later in the month after he arrives in Macedonia.  Macedonia and Russia already played once during the qualifiers and Russia notched a narrow 1:0 win at the Phillip II Arena on 12 October 2010.

Here is the 20 player Russian squad called up by Advocaat for the early September matches against Macedonia and Ireland:

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moskva), Vyacheslav Malafeev (Zenit).

Defenders: Alexander Anyukov, (Zenit), Alexei Bberezutski (CSKA Moskva), Vasiliy Berezutski (CSKA Moskva), Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moskva), Yuri ZhIrkov (Anzhi), Roman Shishik (Lokomotiv Moskva).

Midfielders: Diniyar Belyaletdinov (Everton, England), Denis Glushakov (Lokomotiv Moskva), Dmitry Torbinskiy (Lokomotiv Moskva), Igor Denisov (Zenit), Roman Shirokov (Zenit), Konstantin Zyryanov (Zenit), Alan Dzagoyev (CSKA Moskva), Igor Semshov (Dynamo Moskva).

Attackers: Andrei Arshavin (Arsenal, England), Alexander Kerzhakov (Zenit), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Tottenham, England), Pavel Pogrebnyak (Stuttgart, Germany).