Israel deny fix in Russia showdown

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Their coach Dror Kashtan denied that close links between Chelsea's Russian owner Roman Abramovich and the Israel FA would influence the game at the Ramat Gan Stadium.

Claim: Kashtan

While McClaren and England pray for a Russian failure here, Kashtan said: 'There is a lot of speculation, everything is still open.

'But I'm absolutely certain we will do everything we can to play positive football over these coming 90 minutes to win the game. This is the major message we are trying to get across. We go out there to play our best over 90 minutes and serve our own interest.

'We live in Israel; most of us were born here.

'I'm Israeli and very proud of that. We read about irrelevant speculations, it's probably speculation to cause some kind of atmosphere that doesn't exist.

'We have got no problem about it and we always retain our nationalism and pride.

'We expect our fans to support the national team and be proud of us. I'm sure the players are aware of that factor. And if we get a victory, that can score us a point for future FIFA rankings.'

Although nobody has said so publicly, the issue of a 'convenient' Russian victory became apparent as soon as it was clear that Guus Hiddink's team need to win here to put England out of the competition.

There are also claims that Russia pressured UEFA to change the referee after first selecting Herbert Fandel. The German refereed Celtic's firstleg Champions League qualifier with Spartak Moscow and was blamed by the Russian media for the 1-1 draw that led to their side being knocked out.

This match will be refereed by Italian Stefano Farino and UEFA insisted that Fandel was never in the frame for it.

Hiddink has kept his players away from the controversy by training in Cyprus all week. They will not arrive here until this afternoon.