The Lokomotiv Moscow striker has admitted he was shocked to receive Russian national team call-up by d**k Advocaat earlier this month
Lokomotiv Moscow striker, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roman-Pavlyuchenko-c31639, has been called by Russian national team manager d**k Advocaat for Euro 2012 despite scoring just two goals from nine league appearances this season.
Advocaat has announced the final roaster ahead of the European tournament after their first friendly match against Uruguay at Lokomotiv stadium on Friday.
The 64-year-old manager, who had been impressed by the prolific striker at Euro 2008, has preferred to take Pavlyuchenko to the continental tournament after excluding the likes of Spartak Moscow’s http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Artem-Dzyuba-c6682.
Advocaat has chosen Zenit St. Petersburg’s http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Pavel-Pogrebnyak-c29501 out of all the available Russian strikers respectively.
There is little arguing that the 31-year-old forward is struggling to rediscover his old form that had made him the cult hero at the Moscow-based club.
Pavlyuchenko, who has returned to Russia from Tottenham Hotspur after spending three unsuccessful seasons at the White Hart Lane, has conceded that he is grateful to the manager and will try to justify his selection.
Commenting on his own performance in the friendly match against Lithuania, Pavlyuchenko has insisted that he needs to work much harder if he wants to include his name in the starting line-up.
Pavlyuchenko came off the bench on the 46th minute in the second-half to replace Kerzhakov. The Russian striker has admitted that he would have scored the only goal of the match had he taken all the chances.
“I feel absolutely fine. After playing the game against Lithuania, I have figured it out that there is still hard work to do. There is not much time left ahead of the Euros and we need to speed up personal trainings.” The Russian
Cup winner was quoted as saying.
The fact that Russia have been declared favourites to progress from the group stage despite being tied in a difficult group including http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Czech-Republic-c2882 amuses Pavlyuchenko, who has urged his national team to reach
the later stages of the tournament.
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