Soccer:Stoke City goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen has been ruled out of Denmark's squad for Euro 2012 because of a back injury sustained in a friendly against Brazil on Saturday.
He will be replaced in the squad by Leicester City’s Kasper Schmeichel, whose father Peter played a key role when Denmark won the European Championship in 1992.
Coach Morten Olsen said he could not afford to bring a goalkeeper carrying an injury to the tournament, where Denmark will face Netherlands, Germany and Portugal in the group stage.
“It’s a tough decision I had to make, and it’s a serious blow for us sportingly,” Olsen said, adding that the uncapped Schmeichel will be adequate backup for Stephan Andersen and Anders Lindegaard.
“He (Schmeichel) has worked very seriously on his development as a goalkeeper, and we have followed him closely during the season at Leicester.”
Sorensen was substituted in the first half of the 3-1 defeat by Brazil and was replaced by Andersen who is likely to start in Denmark’s Group B opener against Netherlands on June 9th.
Olsen, who named a preliminary squad on May 16th, gave the final outfield places to Groningen striker Niclas Pedersen and 19-year-old central defender Jores Okore from new Danish champions FC Nordsjaelland.
There was no second chance for
Yoann Gourcuff
as France coach Laurent Blanc shut the door on the Olympique Lyon playmaker's Euro 2012 hopes when he named his final 23-man squad.
Gourcuff and Montpellier centre back Mapou Yanga Mbiwa were dropped from a preliminary list of 25 as Blanc decided to travel to Ukraine with seven defenders and no recognised playmaker.
Gourcuff had been named in a preliminary squad in spite of a mediocre domestic season, but he failed to impress in a 3-2 friendly win against Iceland on Sunday.
France, instead, will rely on speed down the flanks with Jeremy Menez, Franck Ribery and Mathieu Valbuena all named.
Yanga Mbiwa, who marshalled the Montpellier defence to their maiden Ligue 1 title this season, was one of four centre backs and there was little surprise that Blanc dropped the 23-year-old, who had never been called up before.
Blanc had initially called up centre back Younes Kaboul and forward Loic Remy but lost both players to injuries.
Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin
omitted goalkeeper Olexandr Bandura, defender Vitaly Mandzyuk and midfielder Taras Stepanenko in finalising his squad. The trio were dropped following the 4-0 friendly win over Estonia on Monday.
Co-hosts Ukraine will now go into the tournament with a shortage of experienced goal keepers. First-choice Olexandr Shovkovsky sustained a shoulder injury to miss out on the tournament, Andrey Dykan suffered head and facial injuries in a Russian Premier League match and Oleksandr Rybka was suspended for using a banned diuretic.
Shakhtar Donetsk goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov, who has 24 caps, is considered to be the first-choice stopper. Ukraine take on Austria in another friendly on June 1st before a final warm-up against Turkey on June 5th. They open their Group D campaign against Sweden on June 11th.
Midfielders Alexandros Tziolis and Panagiotis Kone
were cut from Greece’s squad by coach Fernando Santos.
Kone’s fate was sealed after the Bologna midfielder was sent off for violent conduct in Saturday's 1-1 friendly draw against Slovenia, while Monaco’s Tziolis did not make the cut due to the ample defensive midfield cover Santos has at his disposal.
Notable absentees from the squad were Panathinaikos goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis, along with other Greens players such as left back Nikos Spiropoulos and right back Loukas Vintra, while promising PAOK striker Stefanos Athanasiadis also missed out.
However, exciting Olympiakos Pireaus’ winger Yiannis Fetfatzidis, Schalke 04 defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos and 19-year-old Kaiserslautern midfielder Costas Fortounis were all retained.
Costas Mitroglou of Olympiakos, who spent the season on loan with Atromitos and finished the season with 16 goals, was also included among the attackers along with Nikos Liberopoulos, Celtic’s Giorgos Samaras, Dimitris Salpigidis and Fanis Gekas.
Arsenal’s Tomas Rosicky
has been included in the Czech Republic squad despite a calf injury.
Pilsen midfielder Vladimir Darida, who won his first cap in Saturday’s 2-1 friendly win against Israel as a replacement for Rosicky, is also named.
SQUADS
CZECH REPUBLIC
Goalkeepers:
Petr Cech (Chelsea), Jaroslav Drobny (Hamburg), Jan Lastuvka (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk).
Defenders:
Theodor Gebre Selassie (Liberec), Roman Hubnik (Hertha Berlin), Michal Kadlec (Bayer Leverkusen), David Limbersky (Pilsen), Frantisek Rajtoral (Pilsen), Tomas Sivok (Besiktas), Marek Suchy (Spartak Moscow).
Midfielders:
Vladimir Darida (Pilsen), Tomas Hubschman (Shakhtar Donetsk), Petr Jiracek (Wolfsburg), Daniel Kolar (Pilsen), Milan Petrzela (Pilsen), Vaclav Pilar (Pilsen), Jaroslav Plasil (Bordeaux), Jan Rezek (Anorthosis Famagusta), Tomas Rosicky (Arsenal).
Forwards:
Milan Baros (Galatasaray), David Lafata (Jablonec), Tomas Necid (CSKA Moscow), Tomas Pekhart (Nuremberg).
DENMARK
Goalkeepers:
Stephan Andersen (Evian Thonon Gaillard), Anders Lindegaard (Manchester United), Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester City).
Defenders:
Lars Jacobsen (FC Copenhagen), Simon Poulsen (AZ Alkmaar), Daniel Wass (Evian Thonon Gaillard), Simon Kjaer (AS Roma), Daniel Agger (Liverpool), Andreas Bjelland (FC Nordsjaelland), Jores Okore (FC Nordsjaelland).
Midfielders:
William Kvist (VfB Stuttgart), Christian Poulsen (Evian Thonon Gaillard), Niki Zimling (Club Bruges), Jakob Poulsen (Midtjylland), Lasse Schone (NEC Nijmegen), Tobias Mikkelsen (FC Nordsjaelland), Michael Krohn-Dehli (Brondby), Thomas Kahlenberg (Evian Thonon Gaillard), Michael Silberbauer (Young Boys).
Forwards:
Christian Eriksen (Ajax Amsterdam), Niclas Pedersen (FC Groningen), Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal), Dennis Rommedahl (Brondby)
FRANCE
Goalkeepers:
Hugo Lloris (Olympique Lyon), Steve Mandanda (Olympique Marseille), Cedric Carrasso (Girondins Bordeaux).
Defenders:
Gael Clichy (Manchester City), Patrice Evra (Manchester United), Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal), Philippe Mexes (AC Milan), Adil Rami (Valencia), Mathieu Debuchy (Lille), Anthony Reveillere (Olympique Lyon).
Midfielders:
Yohan Cabaye (Newcastle United), Florent Malouda (Chelsea), Samir Nasri (Manchester City), Alou Diarra (Olympique Marseille), Yann M'vila (Stade Rennes), Marvin Martin (Sochaux), Blaise Matuidi (Paris St Germain).
Forwards:
Hatem Ben Arfa (Newcastle United), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich), Olivier Giroud (Montpellier), Jeremy Menez (Paris St Germain), Mathieu Valbuena (Olympique Marseille).
GREECE
Goalkeeepers:
Costas Chalkias (PAOK Salonica), Michalis Sifakis (Aris Salonica), Alexis Tzorvas (Palermo).
Defenders:
Avraam Papadopoulos (Olympiakos Pireaus), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Werder Bremen), Vassilis Torosidis (Olympiakos Pireaus), Jose Holebas (Olympiakos Pireaus), Stelios Malezas (PAOK Salonica), Yiannis Maniatis (Olympiakos Pireaus), Giorgos Tzavellas (Monaco), Kyriakos Papadopoulos (Schalke).
Midfielders:
Yiannis Fetfatzidis (Olympiakos Pireaus), Grigoris Makos (AEK Athens), Costas Katsouranis (Panathinaikos), Giorgos Fotakis (PAOK Salonica), Costas Fortounis (Kaiserslautern), Giorgos Karagounis (Panathinaikos), Sotiris Ninis (Panathinaikos)
Forwards:
Giorgos Samaras (Celtic), Dimitris Salpigidis (PAOK Salonica), Costas Mitroglou (Olympiakos Pireaus), Nikos Liberopoulos (AEK Athens), Fanis Gekas (Samsunspor).
UKRAINE
Goalkeepers:
Andriy Pyatov (Shakhtar Donetsk), Olexandr Horyainov (FC Metalist Kharkiv), Maxym Koval (FC Dynamo Kiev).
Defenders:
Olexandr Kucher (Shakhtar Donetsk), Yaroslav Rakitskiy (Shakhtar Donetsk), Vyacheslav Shevchuk (Shakhtar Donetsk), Evhen Khacheridi (Dynamo Kiev), Taras Mykhalyk (Dynamo Kiev), Evhen Selin (Vorskla), Bogdan Butko (Illichivets).
Midfielders:
Olexandr Aliev (Dynamo Kiev), Denys Garmash (Dynamo Kiev), Oleh Gusiev (Dynamo Kiev), Andriy Yarmolenko (Dynamo Kiev), Evhen Konoplyanka (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Ruslan Rotan (Dnipro), Serhiy Nazarenko (Tavriya), Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (Bayern Munich).
Forwards:
Artem Milevskiy (Dynamo Kiev), Andriy Shevchenko (Dynamo Kiev), Marco Devic (FC Metalist Kharkiv), Andriy Voronin (Dynamo Moscow), Evhen Seleznyov (Shakhtar Donetsk).
