Russia unveils preliminary 30-man roster

Ben Hoskins

Russia unveils preliminary 30-man roster - Fabio Capello unveiled a 30 man preliminary squad and Pavel Pogrebnyak turns up as the surprise pick.

The preliminary squad for Russia was announced on Monday and striker Pavel Pogrebnyak was a shock inclusion. The Reading striker has not been included in any squads since Fabio Capello took over in July 2012 and is the only foreign-based player in the 30 man squad.

Pogrebnyak is in his second season with the Championship side and has scored 13 goals in 39 appearances in a season that failed to see the club promoted to the Premier League. But his inclusion comes at the omission of Andrei Arshavin, who is largely a substitute at Zenit Saint Petersburg, and Roman Pavlyuchenko, who announced his retirement from the national team last summer.

Besides Pogrebnyak's inclusion, most of the other players have been consistently called up under Capello. The backline will likely be marshalled by Sergey Ignashevich and Vasili Berezutski while the midfield will be built around the trio of Roman Shirokov, Igor Denisov, and Viktor Fayulin. Up front, Capello will likely use Aleksandr Kerzhakov as the lone striker.

Capello's team face Norway and Morocco in friendly matches before the Italian has to name a 23 man squad by June 2.

Russia are in Group H and will be battling Belgium, South Korea, and Algeria for one of two spots to advance to the second round.

Here is the full provisional squad:

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Yury Lodygin (Zenit St Petersburg), Sergey Ryzhikov (Rubin Kazan).

Defenders: Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St Petersburg), Alexey Berezutskiy (CSKA Moscow), Vasili Berezutskiy (CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Granat (Dynamo Moscow), Andrey Eshchenko (Anzhi Makhachkala), Sergey Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Alexey Kozlov (Dynamo Moscow), Dmitry Kombarov (Spartak Moscow), Andrey Semenov (Terek Grozny), Georgi Schennikov (CSKA Moscow).

Midfielders: Vladimir Bystrov (Anzhi Makhachkala), Yury Gazinskiy (Krasnodar), Denis Glushakov (Spartak Moscow), Igor Denisov (Dynamo Moscow), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow), Yury Zhirkov (Dynamo Moscow), Alexey Ionov (Dynamo Moscow), Pavel Mogilevets (Rubin Kazan), Alexander Samedov (Lokomotiv Moscow), Victor Faizulin (Zenit St Petersburg), Oleg Shatov (Zenit St Petersburg), Roman Shirokov (Krasnodar).

Forwards: Artem Dzyuba (Rostov), Maxim Kanunnikov (Amkar Perm), Alexander Kerzhakov (Zenit St Petersburg), Alexander Kokorin (Dynamo Moscow), Pavel Pogrebnyak (Reading). // ( sbnation.com )