Russia continued to exert pressure on the top two teams in their Euro 2008 qualifier group with a resounding 4-0 thrashing of Andorra on Saturday.

Local boy Aleksandr Kerzhakov scored a hat-trick on his return to the Petrovsky Stadium in St Petersburg to help his team keep pace with other teams from the group vying for the qualification sport to the Euro 2008 championships next year.

Russia was never in trouble and managed to find goals at regular intervals to complete a comfortable victory against a side that has managed to score a solitary goal in the qualification campaign. The home side took the lead in the 7th minute following a defensive blunder by keeper Koldo Alvarez and defender Marc Bernaus and Kerzhakov took advantage of the resulting mix up to score his first goal of the match.

Russia doubled the lead with yet another defensive error, this time Marcio Vieira completely missing the pass from Yuri Zhirkov and Kerzhakov slotted in a simple pass. Russia continued to swamp Andorra throughout the half and should have scored through Andrei Arshavin who hit the side netting. Kerzhakov and Vasili Berezutsky had chances to extend the lead but their efforts were blocked by Alvarez.

Kerzhakov finally got his hat trick four minutes into the second half when he pounced on a rebound after Alvarez had done well to Konstantin Zyryanov. Guus Hiddink then replaced Kerzhakov four minutes later handing a debut for Ascoli midfielder Viktor Boudianski.

Russia continued to splatter the Andorra goal with shots but were unable to find a way through. Russia was finally able to get the fourth goal, when Arshavin passed the ball to substitute Sychev who made no mistake with his chance.

Russia will have to chalk out results if they are to qualify from the group, with the top four teams separated by just 5 points.  Guus Hiddink's team next face group leaders Croatia on June 6. Russia v Andorra ended with a comfortable 4-0 win.