Dick Advocaat says that the return of Andrey Arshavin and several other Russian internationals from the English Premier League will help the national team do better at Euro 2012.
“I think it’s very good for the national team that Arshavin will have more playing practice,” Advocaat told Sportbox.ru. “I can say the same about Roman Pavlyuchenko, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and Pavel Pogrebnyak. During the last six months they spent too little time on the pitch, but now the situation will improve.”
Arshavin has left Arsenal on a half-year loan, rejoining his former side Zenit Saint Petersburg last week.
This winter, Pavlyuchenko and Bilyaletdinov also swapped English teams Tottenham and Everton from Moscow sides – Lokomotiv and Spartak, respectively.
Advocaat said he closely follows the performance of the Russian representatives in the Champions League – Zenit and CSKA, and wishes them the best of luck.
“I hope that both teams will make it to the next round,” the Dutchman stressed. It won’t affect the national squad as we’ll have enough time for all the players to recover.”
The Russian football coach was talking prior to his team’s friendly game against Denmark, to take place in Copenhagen on February 29.
“We’ve made this choice in order to have an opportunity to play with a strong team,” the 64-year-old explained. “But their style can’t be compared to any of our rivals at Euro 2012.”
Advocaat said he’s expecting his team not only show good football, but bag a win in the upcoming match.
“Both are vital for us at the moment,” he said. “We don’t get that many chances to come together. In particular, this’ll be our last game before the training camp prior to the European Championships itself.”
Tournament’s co-hosts Poland, Greece and Czech Republic will be Russia’s rivals at Euro 2012 this summer.