Russia has announced their 25 man provisional squad for the upcoming UEFA EURO 2008 tournament and Sergai Semak is one of the outstanding names read out by national coach Guus Hiddink. The veteran midfielder, who has scored 4 times in his 43 caps for the country last played his international game almost 2 years back, which was in May 2006.

The 32 year old midfielder has been performing extraordinarily lately for Russian Premier League leaders Rubin Kazan. This has brought the attention of the team coach who has left out Aleksandr Kerzhakov who play for Dinamo Moskow. There was also no Marat Izmailov from Sporting Clube de Portugal.

The list also had a few more surprises where Renat Yanbaev was named. The player who is engaged with Lokomotiv Moskva has not played for the country before. Other uncapped players are Oleg Ivanov who plays for Krylya Sovetov Samara and Aleksandr Pavlenko who plays for Spartak Moskva. Hiddink pointed that all his 25 players have the equal chances of being in the final 23 name to be sent to the tournament while the rest would probably be kept in view for the future. He said, "Naturally, not all 25 players will make the cut - one or two are here for the future. I can't know who will make it and surprises are possible."

By 28 May, the list must be trimmed down to a final 23 players where they will are grouped with Sweden, Spain and defending champions Greece. Before that they some friendly games scheduled against Kazakhstan and Serbia.

The Provisional Russian Squad

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (PFC CSKA Moskva), Vladimir Gabulov (FC Amkar Perm), Vyacheslav Malafeev (FC Zenit St. Petersburg).

Defenders: Aleksandr Anyukov (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Aleksei Berezutski (PFC CSKA Moskva), Vasili Berezutski (PFC CSKA Moskva), Sergei Ignashevich (PFC CSKA Moskva), Denis Kolodin (FC Dinamo Moskva), Roman Shirokov (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Renat Yanbayev (FC Lokomotiv Moskva).

Midfielders: Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (FC Lokomotiv Moskva), Dmitri Torbinskiy (FC Lokomotiv Moskva), Vladimir Bystrov (FC Spartak Moskva), Aleksandr Pavlenko (FC Spartak Moskva), Yuri Zhirkov (PFC CSKA Moskva), Konstantin Zyrianov (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Igor Semshov (FC Dinamo Moskva), Oleg Ivanov (FC Krylya Sovetov Samara), Sergei Semak (FC Rubin Kazan).

Forwards: Roman Adamov (FC Moskva), Roman Pavlyuchenko (FC Spartak Moskva), Dmitri Sychev (FC Lokomotiv Moskva), Pavel Pogrebnyak (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Andrei Arshavin (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Ivan Saenko (1. FC Nürnberg).