Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko delayed joining up with the Russia squad to impress Harry Redknapp and challenge Peter Crouch for a starting place at White Hart Lane. Pavlyuchenko stayed in England to play in the pre-season friendly over Olympiacos, with the 27-year-old scoring one and setting another up.

"Taking a night flight to arrive in Moscow on the first day of training is of course very inconvenient," he said on dailymail.co.uk.

"But after talking to the manager I realised I must stay with the team and changed tickets.

"In the end, I played and even scored. Now I will arrive in Moscow in an even better mood."