Yuri Zhirkov focused on Russia's match against Finland

With CSKA Moskva's Yuri Zhirkov quickly emerging as one of Russia's brightest young stars, the faithful around Luzhniki fret whether they'll be chanting “Zhirkov” for much longer. The play-maker extraordinaire has been linked to Roman Abramovich's Chelsea and most recently, Barcelona.

Hopeful that he'll continue to grace CSKA's lineup but the deeply patriotic Russian international might not be so inclined to make the move unless he is confident of a spot in the starting eleven. Speaking to Russian media giant Sports Express he noted that with regards to a possible move to London, "I know no more about it that any other people." Equally young Mr Zhirkov is very focused on CSKA's Champions League efforts, noting that his side will be in the Champions League this year.

However at present his focus is squarely on Russia's World Cup qualifying match against Finland next Wednesday stating, "now I am preparing for the coming match in Finland and try not filling my head with other things."

Dragões honoured with international duty!

Carlos Queiroz as selected three Dragões for Portugal's friendly against Finland next Wednesday at Estádio Algarve. Bruno Alves, Rolando and Raúl Meireles from Porto will be part of the squad, Eduardo and Orlando Sá from SC Braga with João Moutinho chosen from Sporting. Lisandro López and Lucho González have been added to Diego Maradona's Argentina side that faces France in Marseille on Wednesday.

Russia dominates at Lokomotiv

In a match just concluding at Lokomotiv Stadium, Russia easily defeated Finland 3-0. In truth, the scoreline was flattering for the Finnish squad who never seemed to play at the level of quality we're used to seeing from them and at best they were hoping for a scoreless draw. Igor Akinfeev of CSKA Moscow continues to defy his youthful age of twenty-two years, exhibiting calm and leadership in route to keeping the Russian goal clean. With Guus Hiddink employing a 3-5-2 in which Koni teammates Sergey Ignashevich and Vasili Berezutskiy were teamed with Zenit Saint Petersburg's Aleksandr Anyukov, the Russian back-line stood strong and didn't allow the Finns to break through. Throughout the entire match Russia was on the offense, in a splendid and unrelenting attack. While finishing wasn't up to par, or else the score would have been doubled, they constantly placed Finland under the attack and never allowed them a moment to consider attacking options. Finally after a series of goal mouth exchanges and close misses Petri Pasanen was the unfortunate victim of a own goal for Finland at the twenty-second minute mark and Russia took a 1-0 lead. Wave after wave of Russia attacks continued and much to their credit, the Finns held them out until Sergei Semak centered a ball across the mouth of the goal that rattled in off of defender Veli Lampi with twenty-five minutes left. At the urging of the great supporters at Lokomotiv, Russia was insatiable for more goals and after numerous opportunities squandered, Andrei Arshavin raced beyond the diving Finnish 'keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen and struck a perfect left-footed shot to the top far corner, bringing the match to a 3-0 where it stood.

The victory sends Russia to second place in a tie presently with Wales who face Germany later on today.

Russia
Igor Akinfeev,Aleksandr Aniukov,Vasili Berezutsky,Sergei Ignashevich,Igor Denisov,Sergei Semak,Igor Semshov,Yuri Zhirkov,Konstatin Zurianov,Andrei Arshavin (Alan Dzagoev 90'),Pavel Pogrebniak (Ivan Saenko 60')

Finland
Jussi Jaaskelainen,Sami Hyypia,Veli Lampi,Petri Pasanen,Hannu Tihinen,Roman Eremenko (Teemu Tainio 65'),Markus Heikkinen,Joonas Kolkka,Mika Vayrynen (Paulus Roiha 69'),Daniel Sjolund (Jari Litmanen 85'),Mikael Forssell