© EuroFootball.com
The preliminary composition of the Italian national team for the upcoming European Championship next month has been announced. Head coach Giovanni Trapattoni did not include Italian champions "Milan" player Filippo Inzaghi and the talented season discovery from "Parma" Alberto Gilardino in the squad.
Inzaghi scored three goals in the Euro 2004 qualifying match against Wales, but later his season was complicated by injuries, and recently the player underwent knee surgery. After the operation, he has not fully recovered, and although there is still time until the final squad announcement date on June 2nd, it seems the coach should not change his mind.
Another player whose non-invitation caused a lot of discussions is Alberto Gilardino. The young striker emerged three months ago when he became the attacking leader after Adriano left "Parma." Since then, Gilardino has scored many goals, and in the last round he even scored four times. This allowed him to rise to second place with 23 goals in the sniper list after Andriy Shevchenko and become the highest scoring Italian.
But Trapattoni was not persuaded by this: "In this position, I already have Christian Vieri and Bernardo Corradi. I cannot decide just based on what he did in 3 months. Gilardino is talented and has a future in the national team, but when he emerged, we were already involved in the qualifying with a precise project."
The coach invited six attackers - besides stars like Vieri, Del Piero, and Totti, Corradi, Di Vaio, and Cassano were also invited. In place of midfielder Ambrosini, fullback Favalli entered the team, and veteran Peruzzi was chosen as the third goalkeeper. In the center-back rotation, Ferrari and Materazzi will be.
Composition of the Italian national team:
Goalkeepers
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus)
Francesco Toldo (Inter)
Angelo Peruzzi (Lazio)
Defenders
Christian Panucci (Roma)
Massimo Oddo (Lazio)
Fabio Cannavaro (Inter)
Alessandro Nesta (Milan)
Matteo Ferrari (Parma)
Marco Materazzi (Inter)
Gianluca Zambrotta (Juventus)
Giuseppe Favalli (Lazio)
Midfielders
Andrea Pirlo (Milan)
Gennaro Gattuso (Milan)
Simone Perrotta (Chievo)
Cristiano Zanetti (Inter)
Stefano Fiore (Lazio)
Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus)
Forwards
Marco Di Vaio (Juventus)
Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus)
Antonio Cassano (Roma)
Francesco Totti (Roma)
Bernardo Corradi (Lazio)
Christian Vieri (Inter)
