United v European XI: Lippi announces final squad
March 12, 2007
Marcello Lippi has confirmed the final inclusions into his 22-man squad. A star-studded European XI including Ronaldo, Marco Materazzi and Steven Gerrard will join forces to face Manchester United on Tuesday to celebrate 50 years since the EU’s founding Treaty of Rome.
There will be no cosy coming-together for Materazzi and Zinedine Zidane, who famously head-butted the Inter Milan defender in last year’s World Cup final in what was the French great’s swansong. The Union of European Football Associations (Uefa) invited Zidane for the special match but “the answer arrived late and it was negative” said Lippi, who coached Italy to victory and is managing the European XI for Tuesday’s match.
David Beckham was earlier named to face his former club but is currently out with a knee injury. However, Beckham will be present at Old Trafford for the match.
The full Europe XI squad:
Goalkeepers: Oliver Kahn (Bayern Munich/GER), Gregory Coupet (Lyon/FRA), Iker Casillas (Real Madrid/ESP)
Defenders: Paolo Maldini (AC Milan/ITA), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool/ENG), Eric Abidal (Lyon/FRA), Lilian Thuram (Barcelona/ESP), Carles Puyol (Barcelona/ESP), Marco Materazzi (Inter Milan/ITA), Fabio Grosso (Inter Milan/ITA), Gianluca Zambrotta (Barcelona/ESP).
Midfielders: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool/ENG), Juninho (Lyon/FRA), Florent Malouda (Lyon/FRA), Luis Miguel (Valencia/ESP), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan/ITA), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan/ITA)
Strikers: Ronaldinho (Barcelona/ESP), Ronaldo (AC Milan/ITA), Alessandro Mancini (AS Roma/ITA), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan/ITA), Henrik Larsson (Helsingborg/SWE).
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