Russia boss Advocaat tight-lipped on wheter Kerzhakov will start against Greece

Russia boss Dick Advocaat has refused to confirm whether he will axe under-fire striker Aleksandr Kerzhakov for Saturday’s pivotal Euro 2012 Group A meeting with Greece.
The Zenit striker squandered a slew of chances in his country’s tournament-opening 4-1 demolition of Czech Republic and also failed to break his duck in the 1-1 draw with Poland.

It is now believed that Kerzhakov could be dropped for the game against the Greeks and replaced by either Roman Pavlyuchenko or Pavel Pogrebnyak, but Advocaat is keeping his cards close to his chest.

“I cannot tell you anything about the line-up,” the Dutchman stated during a press conference on Friday evening. “Kerzhakov is a player who can score a goal at any time and that is very important for us.”

The Russians only need a draw to seal a place in the last eight and Advocaat is confident of picking up at least a point, provided his players improve their ball retention.

“The first half against Poland was very good,” the former Netherlands boss mused. “In the second half we played not so good and Poland were stronger.

“We lost the ball too often. But now we must get a good result against Greece.”

Russia’s final fixture in Group A is scheduled to get under way at 20:45CET.

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