© EuroFootball.com
Coaches of the national teams of the Czech Republic and Bulgaria have chosen their preliminary squads for the European Championship: the Czech team includes 24 players, while the Bulgarian team consists of 23 players. Czech national team coach Karel Bruckner trusts young players - seven players who played in the U-21 youth team in the 2002 championship were invited. From the Euro-96 silver medal-winning team, only three players remain - Pavel Nedved from Juventus, Vladimir Smicer from Liverpool, and Sparta captain Karel Poborsky.
Czech Republic squad:
Goalkeepers
Jaromir Blazek (Sparta)
Petr Cech (Rennes)
Antonín Kinsky (Saturn)
Defenders
Rene Bolf (Banuk)
Zdenek Grygera (Ajax)
Tomas Hubschmann (Sparta)
Marek Jankulovski (Udinese)
Martin Jiranek (Reggina)
Pavel Mares (Zenit)
David Rozehnal (Brugge)
Tomas Ujfalusi (HSV)
Midfielders
Tomas Galasek (Ajax)
Pavel Nedved (Juventus)
Jaroslav Plasil (Monaco)
Karel Poborsky (Sparta)
Tomas Rosicky (Borussia)
Vladimír Smicer (Liverpool)
Roman Tyce (TSV)
Stepan Vachousek (Marseille)
Forwards
Milan Baros (Liverpool)
Marek Heinz (Banik)
Jan Koller (Borussia)
Vratislav Lokvenc (Kaiserslautern)
Miroslav Matušovic (Banik)
Bulgaria coach Plamen Markov will rely more on experienced players in the championship, but some younger players will also have a chance. One possible young surprise is Valeri Bojinov, playing in Italy for Lecce. The team leaders should be captain Stilian Petrov from Celtic and Dimitar Berbatov from Bayer.
Bulgaria squad:
Goalkeepers
Zdravko Zdravkov (Litex)
Dimitar Ivankov (Levski)
Stoyan Kolev (CSKA Sofia)
Defenders
Vladimir Ivanov (Lokomotiv Plovdiv)
Rosen Kirilov (Litex)
Kiril Kotev (Lokomotiv Plovdiv)
Ivailo Petkov (Fenerbahce)
Predrag Pazin (Shakhtar)
Ilian Stoyanov (Levski)
Zlatomir Zagorcic (Litex)
Midfielders
Daniel Borimirov (Levski)
Velizar Dimitrov (CSKA Sofia)
Marian Hristov (Kaiserslautern)
Martin Petrov (Wolfsburg)
Stilian Petrov (Celtic)
Georgi Peev (Dynamo Kyiv)
Milen Petkov (AEK)
Forwards
Dimitar Berbatov (Bayer)
Valeri Bojinov (Lecce)
Georgi Chilikov (Levski)
Zoran Jankovic (Dalian)
Zdravko Lazarov (Gaziantepspor)
Vladimir Manchev (Lille)
