Advocaat surprised by in-form McGeady

DICK ADVOCAAT has admitted his surprise at how well Aiden McGeady had settled in at Spartak Moscow.

The Russia boss believes Ireland winger McGeady has been outstanding since making a surprise move to the Russian capital from Celtic.

Former Holland and Belgium boss Advocaat also compared the mercurial Glaswegian to his own attacking ace Andrei Arshavin.

“I was surprised when he said he was going to Russia and not to England,” said Advocaat.

“I am also quite surprised that he is doing so well so quickly. If you go abroad more often than not you need more time to feel comfortable but straight from the beginning he has become a key player for the team.”

The Dutchman came across McGeady regularly during his spell as Rangers boss and has the height of respect for the creative player.

“I know McGeady already from Celtic. He was already a very good player when he was there,” said the 63-year-old, who managed the Scottish giants from 1998 to 2002.

Advocaat has a number of injury concerns ahead of tonight’s game.

Aleksandr Kerzhakov looks set to miss out through injury and he will be considered a major loss. His club-mates Aleksandr Anyukov and Vladimir Bystrov also trained separately from the squad.

Tonight’s game at the Aviva Stadium is well on the way to being a sellout. 1,000 returns from the Russian Football Federation went on sale to the Irish public yesterday and were expected to have all been snapped up by kick-off.

FAI chief executive John Delaney also said that steps are being taken to address the crowd management issues.

“I was at a meeting on Monday morning with Martin Murphy who is the stadium director and (IRFU chief executive) Philip Browne and the issue of the Leinster-Munster game did come up,” said Delaney. “I think there are some operational issues that the stadium company were not as good on as they should have been from what I gather. And they will be rectified.”

Coincidentally officials from UEFA are due to attend tonight’s match as part of their preparations for the stadium’s hosting of the Europa cup final next year.