As all squad rosters for Euro 2012 have been made official to UEFA, so have Italy’s Group C adversaries: SPAIN, IRELAND, and CROATIA. If you want to find out who Del Bosque, Trapattoni, and Bilic have selected to feature in this Summer’s tournament, look no further!
National team coach Cesare Prandelli has made the Azzurri’s roster official, and communicated his list to UEFA.
Compared his previous version, the manager has left out Andrea Ranocchia and Mattia Destro. Doubts remain on the eligibility of Leonardo Bonucci, currently under investigation in the massive betting scandal surrounding Italian soccer this week.
The list also made the squad numbers for the final phase of the tournament official.
As I mentioned before, I am not entirely convinced at the Azzurri’s chances of success at Euro 2012. The squad has not enthused me during their qualifying campaign and although they retrieved Antonio Cassano from injury, the absence of Giuseppe Rossi coupled with the unpredictability of Mario Balotelli and still relative inexperience of Sebastian Giovinco makes me doubt the goalscoring efficiency of Italy’s strikeforce. Other forward alternatives, as taken from Prandelli’s preliminary list of 32, don’t necessarily set my mind to ease either.
That said, in the case you’re still willing to place a football bet on Italy’s gold medal, perhaps you’ll be buoyed by words from the man himsef, as the National Team coach defends the choices (as preliminary as they might be) of his player call-ups for this Summer’s tournament.
As the European Championship draws near, over the past week-end Azzurri coach Cesare Prandelli revealed his preliminary list of 32 players from which the final 23 who will be making the trip to Poland/Ukraine this Summer.
There were several surprises, such as newcomers Mattia Destro (Siena), Emanuele Giaccherini (Juventus), and Ezequiel Schelotto (Atalanta), but also “old-timers” who despite their vast amount of experience have not featured yet under Prandelli’s reign: Rubin Kazan defender Salvatore Bocchetti, Bologna’s Alessandro Diamanti, and Udinese veteran Antonio Di Natale.
With one month and a half to go before Euro 2012 officially begins this Summer, the design of the match tickets was revealed at Kiev’s Olympic Stadium (the venue for the final) and Warsaw’s National Stadium (where the tournament will get underway on June 8th) this week.
The ticket, beautifully colored, is horizontal with a large flower on the front, the leaves of which depict the stadium hosting a match and the flags of the two countries involved. The front also features the number of the match (in a top-right flower bud), along with seat details. Instructions on how to reach the stadium can be found on the reverse, along with a security strip.
.jpg)
