Luis Aragonés has named four Liverpool players in his final 23-man squad for this summer’s European Championships, to be held in Austria and Switzerland.
Pepe Reina, Álvaro Arbeloa, Xabi Alonso and Fernando Torres are all involved.
Spain will play a friendly against Peru on May 31st, but their Euro 2008 fixtures get underway on June 10th against Russia in Innsbruck. Four days later at the same venue they play Sweden before ending their group games with a match against Greece on June 16th in Salzburg.
The decision to omit some star names, including Real’s Raul, whilst including the uncapped Santiago Cazorla and Sergio García has raised eyebrows, but Aragonés was clear that he would make the decisions he felt were right: “I’m the one, for better or worse, who has to choose and I have chosen.” Álvaro Arbeloa has only played around 15 minutes for Spain too.
Aragonés caused upset at Espanyol by not picking any of their players in his squad, including Liverpool-linked winger Albert Riera. DiarioSport reported earlier this week that Riera was a Liverpool target with Sebastian Leto part of the deal. They suggested Liverpool had made an offer of around £8m with Espanyol holding out for £12m. Fiorentina were also said to be interested, but Liverpool may be helped thanks to Espanyol’s sporting director being former Liverpool head scout and long-time friend of Rafa’s Paco Herrera.
The inclusion of Liverpool’s young Argentinean midfielder Leto in the deal would be on a loan basis. Leto has suffered from passport problems this season and hasn’t played for the first team since October. Spanish government rules on work permits are different to British rules so he should have no problems playing in Spain whilst waiting for a resolution to the issue.
Pepe Reina, Álvaro Arbeloa, Xabi Alonso and Fernando Torres are all involved.
Spain will play a friendly against Peru on May 31st, but their Euro 2008 fixtures get underway on June 10th against Russia in Innsbruck. Four days later at the same venue they play Sweden before ending their group games with a match against Greece on June 16th in Salzburg.
The decision to omit some star names, including Real’s Raul, whilst including the uncapped Santiago Cazorla and Sergio García has raised eyebrows, but Aragonés was clear that he would make the decisions he felt were right: “I’m the one, for better or worse, who has to choose and I have chosen.” Álvaro Arbeloa has only played around 15 minutes for Spain too.
Aragonés caused upset at Espanyol by not picking any of their players in his squad, including Liverpool-linked winger Albert Riera. DiarioSport reported earlier this week that Riera was a Liverpool target with Sebastian Leto part of the deal. They suggested Liverpool had made an offer of around £8m with Espanyol holding out for £12m. Fiorentina were also said to be interested, but Liverpool may be helped thanks to Espanyol’s sporting director being former Liverpool head scout and long-time friend of Rafa’s Paco Herrera.
The inclusion of Liverpool’s young Argentinean midfielder Leto in the deal would be on a loan basis. Leto has suffered from passport problems this season and hasn’t played for the first team since October. Spanish government rules on work permits are different to British rules so he should have no problems playing in Spain whilst waiting for a resolution to the issue.
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