Spain vs Russia
Spain have minor concerns over David Villa (thigh), Sergio Garcia and Andres Iniesta (food poisoning) for their Euro 2008 opener against Russia.
Coach Luis Aragones is expecting all his players to be fit but he could leave Cesc Fabregas on bench.
Russia boss Guus Hiddink is without key playmaker Andrei Arshavin and striker Pavel Pogrebnyak.
Arshavin is suspended while Pogrebnyak has been ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury.
The Zenit St Petersburg forward, who finished this season’s UEFA Cup campaign as joint top scorer alongside Italy’s Luca Toni with 10 goals, will be replaced by Samara midfielder Oleg Ivanov.
Pogrebnyak twisted his left knee in a warm-up match against Serbia in late May and his loss is a big blow for a side already another Zenit striker in Arshavin
“I’ve known about Arshavin for many months and Pogrebnyak in recent days,” said Hiddink.
“That’s a setback. I can’t complain and start crying, and anyway I have confidence that the rest of the team can cover for those two losses.”
The goalscoring duties are set to fall on Roman Pavlyuchenko, who netted twice in the 2-1 win over England in October 2007 that paved the way for qualification.
Pavlyuchenko has struggled for form at club level and was dropped to the Spartak Moscow reserves in April after being sent off dissent.
But he appeared back in form during Russia’s Euro 2008 warm-up matches, scoring against Serbia and Lithuania.
Aragones, meanwhile, is likely to choose between Brazilian-born Marcos Senna or Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso for the holding midfield role in place of Fabregas.
“You can’t dispute his quality but the problem is that he has gone 30 days without a game,” said Aragones.
Of Iniesta, the 69-year-old added: “Iniesta is weaker than the others because of his stomach bug, or whatever it was, but that’s logical.”
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