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KERZHAKOV: PURE PLEASURE TO PLAY WITH ARSHAVIN
According to Sport Express chances are high that
Guus Hiddink will prefer small Arshavin and Kerzhakov to big Pogrebnyak
and Pavlyuchenko in Helsinki.
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Alexandr Kerzhakov (L) and Andrei Arshavin,
2007 Photo SPORT EXPRESS
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The best scorer of the Russian national squad in the Euro-2008
qualification stage Alexandr Kerzhakov returned to the team after a year
and a half of absence.
"Recently there were many talks that I could return to the national
side," said the forward of Dynamo. "So I was morally ready to
such course of events."
"I cannot say that the call-up caught me unawares but I was very
glad when Guus Hiddink dialed my number."
"When he called I was at the training session so as you can imagine
I could not answer. Hiddink sent me an sms saying to call back when I
was free."
"In the conversation with the head coach he hinted that was going
to cap me for the coming match. I also talked to Alexandr Borodyuk and
Igor Korneev, they also saw how happy I was to return to the national
team."
"I was not offended that missed the final stage of the Euro-2008,
I was disappointed. I know that I was the top scorer during its qualification
but in football one cannot live on name."
"One should always prove that he deserves his place in the national
squad and I understand it. At the time of the Euro-2008 I was equal to
others and to get to the tournament I should have been best."
"Of course I was very disappointed then. When you experience such
emotions at winning the ticket to the tournament and then miss it:"
"Fortunately my life taught me to think differently. I am only 26
and have a wonderful family. Moreover Dynamo did well and that also added
to good spirits. In general the whole story blurred out of my head."
"I am not thinking about getting to the starting eleven in Helsinki.
I am not looking forward to being in it I am just happy to work with the
national squad again."
"The head coach is to decide the starting line-up and the players
should accept his choice no matter what is it."
"I played a lot against Finnish teams. St. Petersburg is not far
from the border and as early as in my childhood I used to play there at
children's tournaments."
"I also visited Finland with Zenit at the training camps, there were
Arshavin and Bystrov in the team then."
"I have a chance to play with them again for the national side, we
had many good matches together both in Zenit and in the Russian squad."
"Though what is more important for me now is to feel the atmosphere
of the national team and not break my head about the squad for the match
in Helsinki."
"I don't doubt that it will be easy for me to adapt to the game of
Arshavin. When we played together we never trained our combinations. We
just understood each other on the pitch at a glance."
"Arshavin is a wonderful player and as the recent events show other
players also easily find mutual understanding with Andrei."
"I can say that when we played together with Andrei we played with
great pleasure and scored a lot. It was really a good time."
"If it had not been to the defeat to Germany the situation in our
group would have been ideal. But still everything is quite all right,
for the future of Russia depends only on us."
"I hope that the match against Germany in Moscow will be decisive.
Most important to us is not to lose points before this game."
"Two years ago we outplayed England in Luzhniki and understood that
could outplay everybody including Germans."
Sport
Express Daily, 05 June 2009
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