Saturday, October 11, 2008
International Weekend Kicks Off
After almost a week of training, it's time for the National teams to go on the pitch too. Between this weekend and next Wednesday, the calendar offers many important games, qualifiers for the 2010 South Africa World Cup and for the European Under 21 Championship finals, to be held next summer.
Apart from Ekdal, who has already played his game with the Swedish Under 21 team, as many as 9 Bianconeri should be taking the pitch.
Poulsen and Sissoko will only be playing a single game. Denmark face Malta today, while Mali host Chad on Sunday, so the two midfielders will be back at Ranieri's disposal already on Tuesday, but the Mali player won't be available for the Napoli game in any case due to his sending off against Palermo.
For the other players, today's games will only be the first of two. Cheillini's Italy play Bulgaria, Grygera's Czech Republic face Poland, Manninger's Austria travel to the Far Oer islands and Knezevic's Croatia travel to the Ukraine, looking for points to qualify for the next World Cup, scheduled to be played in two years' time.
The Italian Under 21s' objective is closer. De Ceglie, Marchisio, Giovinco and their team mates will play against Israel over two matches to access the final stages. The first game is played at home in Ancona this afternoon.
Here is the full schedule.
Italy (Chiellini)
Bulgaria vs. Italy, in Sofia, 11/10/08
Italy vs. Montenegro, Lecce, 15/10/08
Italy Under 21s (De Ceglie, Marchisio, Giovinco)
European Play-offs
Italy vs. Israel, Ancona, 11/10/08
Israel vs. Italy, Tel Aviv, 15/10/08
Czech Republic (Grygera)
Poland vs. Czech Republic, Krakow, 11/10/08
Czech Republic vs. Slovenia, Teplice, 15/10/08
Austria (Manninger)
Far Oer vs. Austria, Torshavn, 11/10/08
Austria vs. Serbia, Vienna, 15/10/08
Croatia (Knezevic)
Ukraine vs. Croatia, Kharkiv, 11/10/08
Croatia vs. Andorra, Zagreb, 15/10/08
Denmark (Poulsen)
Denmark vs. Malta, Copenhagen, 11/10/08
Mali (Sissoko)
Mali vs. Chad, Bamako, 12/10/08
Sweden Under 21s (Ekdal)
Friendly
Sweden vs. Georgia, Falkenberg, 10/10/08
Juventus.com
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