Russia coach Dick Advocaat has named a 21-man squad for the team's first two European Championship qualifiers - his first competitive games since joining in July.
Russia will travel to Andorra for its Group B opener on Sept. 3, and then hosts Slovakia in Moscow four days later.
Advocaat made two changes to the squad that beat Bulgaria 1-0 in a warm-up match earlier this month. Rubin Kazan striker Alan Kasayev replaces injured Zenit St. Petersburg midfielder Igor Denisov, while Zenit goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev was added as a third 'keeper.
Advocaat replaced Guus Hiddink, whose team failed to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa after losing to Slovenia in a playoff.
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Squad:
Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Gabulov (Dynamo Moscow), Vyacheslav Malafeev (Zenit St. Petersburg)
Defenders: Aleksander Anyukov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Aleksei Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), Vasili Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Denis Kolodin (Dynamo Moscow), Yuri Zhirkov (Chelsea)
Midfielders: Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (Everton), Vladimir Bystrov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Konstantin Zyryanov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Roman Shirokov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow), Igor Semshov (Dynamo Moscow), Dmitry Torbinsky (Lokomotiv Moscow)
Strikers: Andrei Arshavin (Arsenal), Alan Kasayev (Rubin Kazan), Pavel Pogrebnyak (Stuttgart), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Tottenham), Dmitry Sychev (Lokomotiv Moscow)
