All I care about is for Spain, fuck everyone else. Viva La Furia Roja! Russia probably has the easiest group but they struggle with everyone.
Group A is the easiest, but all of those teams are close to each other and hard to predict who could get out.
Irish squad released. No Stokes from Celtic or Coleman from Celtic. No Clark from Villa either. James McCarthy pulled out cos his dads got cancer, bummer. The good thing is that McClean is in, great response to his haters on twitter earlier as well.
Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Borussia Monchengladbach), Tim Wiese (SV Werder Bremen), Ron-Robert Zieler (Hannover 96). Defence: Holger Badstuber (Bayern Munich), Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Benedikt Howedes (Schalke), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Per Mertesacker (Arsenal), Marcel Schmelzer (Borussia Dortmund). Midfielders: Lars Bender (Bayer Leverkusen), Sven Bender (Borussia Dortmund), Julian Draxler (Schalke), Mario Gotze (Borussia Dortmund), Ilkay Gundogan (Borussia Dortmund), Sami Khedira (Real Madrid), Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich), Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich), Mesut Ozil (Real Madrid), Lukas Podolski (Cologne), Marco Reus (Borussia Monchengladbach), Andre Schurrle (Bayer Leverkusen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich). Forwards: Cacau (Stuttgart), Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich), Miroslav Klose (Lazio). strength: obviously the midfield weakness: the other fullback position which will apparently be either boateng, howedes, or schmelzer :\ surprise: cacau won the third striker spot, ilkay gundogan was included, and this draxler dude fuck!: mertesacker has a chance to sabotage everything, thanks for half assing your job arsenal
Doyle is gone from Wolves in the summer I'd say. How has Ward done this year? Pretty brutal along with the team, only I say it because he's been talked about as the weak link in the team.
Cant see Per getting off the bench over Howedes, Badstuber, and Hummels also surprised to see no Seamus Coleman for Ireland
Draxler is really fucking good. He's pretty much the next Reus/Muller type player. He won't make the final 23, but he'll be a major part of the NT in the next 10 years, so Low probably wanted him to get acclimated. No way Merte sees the field over Hummels, Badstuber, Howedes, and Boatang. There is a ton of talent in that squad, but a lot of guys who have missed time due to injury and aren't in form. Howedes, Schweini, Merte, Bender, Gotze, and Klose are all either injured or still trying to get back to form.
are we using this as the official euro thread? anyway, puyol is likely out for the tournament. he had knee surgery today that is going to keep him out for a few months
xavi, iniesta, busquets, cesc, and thiago are all healthy sry. pique has been hurt lately but i haven't read anything that will keep him out of the tournament
sucks, but still if you were to ask me which 5 players id want spain to lose before euro, xavi would be first and puyol / villa likely 2, 3
i'm wondering how effective villa would have been this summer had he not been injured. he had been on a serious slump before it happened. maybe it would've been a klose situation where he would always go full beast mode for the national team. anyway, it's a moot point. i wonder where spain is going to try and get their goals from besides torres. llorente and pedro need to step up for them
France is naming two provisional squads for Euro's. 1 for domestic players, 1 for foreign based players. Here are the foreigners Defenders: Gael Clichy (Manchester City), Patrice Evra (Manchester United), Younes Kaboul (Tottenham Hotspur), Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal), Philippe Mexes (AC Milan), Adil Rami (Valencia) Midfielders: Yohan Cabaye (Newcastle United), Florent Malouda (Chelsea), Samir Nasri (Manchester City) Forwards: Hatem Ben Arfa (Newcastle United), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich)
Spain squad to face Serbia and South Korea: Casillas (Real Madrid), Reina (Liverpool), De Gea (Man United); Arbeloa (Real Madrid), Ramos (Real Madrid), Albiol (Real Madrid), Alba (Valencia), Monreal (Malaga), Torres (Atlético Madrid); Domínguez (Atlético Madrid); Alonso (Real Madrid), Cazorla (Malaga), Etxebarria (Real Betis), Isco (Malaga), Garcia (Benfica), Soriano (Villarreal) Silva (Man City), Navas (Sevilla); Negredo (Sevilla), Soldado (Valencia); Lopez (Atlético). no Barça, Bilbao, or Chelsea players because they have the copa del rey and champion's league