Dutch set to turn to Chelsea threesome

The Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is expected to lead the Netherlands' attack in their friendly against Spain in Seville tonight.

The Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is expected to lead the Netherlands' attack in their friendly against Spain in Seville tonight.

Hasselbaink, who has scored 11 goals in 13 games for Chelsea this season, should play alongside Barcelona's Patrick Kluivert and is likely to be joined by his club-mates Mario Melchiot and Winston Bogarde.

"Forwards like Hasselbaink and Kluivert should play well together," the Dutch coach, Louis van Gaal, said. Melchiot and Bogarde will play right and left-back respectively, but the former Arsenal winger Marc Overmars will miss the game through injury.

The French striker Youri Djorkaeff has, according to media reports and to one of his team-mates, not travelled to Istanbul for tonight's friendly against Turkey because of a fear of reprisals after the French Senate recognised the World War I killings of Armenians as genocide.

The former Arsenal player Emmanuel Petit made the claim at a news conference in Istanbul, but his explanation of Djorkaeff's absence was countered by the French coach, Roger Lemerre, who insisted that Djorkaeff was injured and his decision to leave him out had nothing to do with politics.

Turks, who allege that the Armenians died during general civil unrest, are very sensitive about the issue.