Euro 2016 Status Report: Russia

After this week’s packed schedule, with each country playing twice, there are only two friendly slots remaining before the 23-man squads have to be announced on May 31 – so countries are running out of time to test new players.

We have drawn on our extensive European network of websites to bring you our expert insight into how the Euro 2016 contenders are shaping up. Here Igor Zelenitsyn, from Eurosport Russia, adds his expert opinion...

Saturday, March 26: Lithuania (H)Tuesday, March 29: France (A)

- AleksandrKerzhakov is injured: The best scorer in the history of the Russian league jumped from Zenit Saint Petersburg to FC Zurich to get some match practice. Andre Villas Boas didn't like Kerzhakov and put him out of the squad without an explanation (some sources in the club say that it's because of a popular nickname in Saint Petersburg - 'Rusty' - that Kerzhakov created for AVB behind his back). The forward trained with Zenit's youth teams to keep himself in good shape but then asked for a loan. They found an option in a competitive European league, but at the weekend he picked up a muscle injury and will miss two weeks (though some sources say he could be ready for the France game).

- Roman Shirokov's poor form: The national team captain switched from Spartak Moscow to CSKA in the winter (it's like moving from Manchester United to Manchester City - not the end of the world, but you'll get some unpleasant feedback). He called CSKA his home (he attended CSKA's academy and spent a few seasons with CSKA-2 before diving to Russian football's depths) but began the spring part of the season in poor form. He produced some good moments and scored in his first game (against Ufa in the Russian Cup) but his overall performance level was very low. Leonid Slutsky even put him on the bench in the last game against FC Kuban. Three months before Euro 2016, this is quite an awful story for the 34-year-old.

- Guilherme or Kritsyuk?: Russia have two quite good goalkeepers (Akinfeev and Lodygin) but the identity of the third one is not obvious. Slutsky called up FC Krasnodar youngster Kritsyuk, who has done very well in Portuguese football and, rather surprisingly, Brazilian Guilherme from Lokomotiv who has played in Russia for eight and a half years. He could be the very first foreign player in the Russian team - and he is the first foreigner for years who has a possibility of playing for Russia. Because of that, there some talks whether it's 'moral' or not.

Slutsky played down the actions of Lokomotiv Moscow's Dmitri Tarasov, who caused controversy when revealing a t-shirt bearing an image of Vladimir Putin in a match in Istanbul: “The line about Tarasov and the Vladimir Putin jersey won't affect on my decision to work with him. We estimate both Tarasov and other players only on football criteria. I don't see any correlations to the national team.”

Slutsky said the team has four spots up for debate - hence, there are seven which are 100% locked down. The certainties (if fit) are Akinfeev, Ignashevich, V.Berezutsky, Dzagoev, Kombarov, Shirokov and one of two Zenit forwards (Dzyuba or Kokorin; most likely the former). Interesting options are Kuzmin as a right-back, Zhirkov as a left-back / left attacking midfielder, Glushakov as a left holding midfielder, Shatov or Ionov as a right attacking midfielder and Smolov as a forward.

Maybe only Roman Neustadter from Schalke, who is reportedly trying to get a Russian passport and to play at Euro 2016 as a central defender (which is the weakest place in the team).

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA), Yury Lodygin (Zenit), Stanislav Kritsyuk (Krasnodar), Guilherme (Lokomotiv).

Defenders: Alexey Berezutsky (CSKA), Vasily Berezutsky (CSKA), Sergey Ignashevich (CSKA), Yury Zhirkov (Zenit), Igor Smolnikov (Zenit), Dmitry Kombarov (Spartak), Oleg Kuzmin (Rubin).

Midfielders: Dmitry Torbinsky (Krasnodar), Denis Glushakov (Spartak), Igor Denisov (Dynamo), Alexey Ionov (Dynamo), Aleksander Golovin (CSKA), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA), Roman Shirokov (CSKA), Oleg Ivanov (Terek), Ilya Maksimov (Anzhi), Pavel Mamaev (Krasnodar), Aleksander Samedov (Lokomotiv), Dmitry Tarasov (Lokomotiv), Oleg Shatov (Zenit), Artur Yusupov (Zenit).

Forwards: Artem Dzyuba (Zenit), Aleksander Kokorin (Zenit), Aleksander Kerzhakov (Zurich), Fedor Smolov (Krasnodar).