Russia manager Fabio Capello has left Arsenal forward Andrei Arshavin out of his 24-man squad to play 2014 World Cup Group F qualifying matches with Portugal and Azerbaijan in Moscow later this month.
The 66-year-old coach also dropped Reading striker Pavel Pogrebnyak, calling up 22-year-old rookie Maxim Grigoriev of Lokomotiv Moscow to boost his team’s attacking line.
In defence, Capello picked two new players, Renat Yanbayev, who has recently joined Zenit SP from Lokomotiv Moscow, and Vladimir Granat of D. Moscow in place of CSKA Moscow’s Georgy Schennikov.
Schennikov was in the squad for last month’s qualifiers against N. Ireland and Israel.