Zhirkov out, Alex in

Carlo Ancellotti has confirmed that Alex will play against Birmingham while Zhirkov will miss the game with a calf injury. The Italian stated 'Tomorrow Alex will be available to play, this is good news, he trained well with the Brazilian team but we know that he needs to have surgery,' He went on to blame Russia's artifical pitch for Zhirkov's injury 'We have a problem with Zhirkov because he played on the artificial pitch, he has tightness on his calf so he is not able to play tomorrow.'