Rausch and Neustadter dropped from Russia's World Cup squad

Stanislav Cherchesov has chosen a largely domestic-based squad for the World Cup, with only two playing their club football outside Russia.

Konstantin Rausch and Roman Neustadter have been left out of Russia's final 23-man squad for the World Cup.

Soslan Dzhanaev, Fedor Chalov and Alexander Tashaev are the other names to be cut from the provisional squad by Stanislav Cherchesov.

The coach has largely selected domestic-based players, with all but two of the squad playing their club football in Russia. Villarreal's Denis Cheryshev and goalkeeper Vladimir Gabulov of Club Brugge are the exceptions.

Established stars Sergey Ignashevich, Yuri Zhirkov and Igor Akinfeev are joined by newer faces like Mario Fernandes and twins Aleksey and Anton Miranchuk.

After suffering a 1-0 defeat to Austria on Wednesday, they will hope to get their preparations back on track when Turkey visit Moscow on Tuesday.

The hosts play Saudi Arabia in the opening match of the tournament on 14 June, before facing Egypt and Uruguay in Group A.

 

Russia's final 23-man World Cup squad:

Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Gabulov (Club Brugge), Andrey Lunev (Zenit), Fedor Kudryashov (Rubin Kazan), Vladimir Granat (Rubin Kazan), Sergey Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Ilya Kutepov (Spartak Moscow), Andrey Semenov (Akhmat Grozny), Igor Smolnikov (Zenit), Mario Fernandes (CSKA Moscow), Yuri Gazinsky (Krasnodar), Anton Miranchuk (Lokomotiv Moscow), Aleksandr Golovin (CSKA Moscow), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow), Aleksandr Erokhin (Zenit), Yuri Zhirkov (Zenit), Roman Zobnin (Spartak Moscow), Daler Kuzyaev (Zenit), Aleksandr Samedov (Spartak Moscow), Denis Cheryshev (Villarreal), Artem Dzyuba (Arsenal Tula), Aleksey Miranchuk (Lokomotiv Moscow), Fedor Smolov (Krasnodar).