EURO 2000: Zoff trims 'no-surprise' Italian squad

June 1st, 2000
SportsServer

ROME - Dino Zoff may not have pulled any rabbits out of his hat when announcing his squad for the Euro 2000 championships but he reckons that won't stop the Squadra Azzurra getting to at least the semi-final stages of the competition.

Only two players from the newly crowned Italian champions Lazio compared to four from bitter city rivals AS Roma and seven from Juventus appear in his 22-man list for the finals that Italy has won just the once, back in 1968.

Zoff's provisional list of 26 published on May 14 was cut down with the exclusion through injury of Christian Vieri (Inter Milan) with Zoff leaving out the experienced Parma duo Dino Baggio, a veteran of the 1994 and 1998 World Cup finals, and Diego Fuser and Lazio's Guiseppe Pancaro. Italy's first match is against Turkey on June 11.

Squad 

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Parma), Francesco Toldo (Fiorentina), Francesco Antonioli (AS Roma)

Defenders: Fabio Cannavaro (Parma), Alessandro Nesta (Lazio), Ciro Ferrara (Juventus), Mark Iuliano (Juventus), Paolo Maldini (AC Milan), Paolo Negro (Lazio), Gianluca Pessotto (Juventus)

Midfielders: Massimo Ambrosini (AC Milan), Demetrio Albertini (AC Milan), Antonio Conte (Juventus), Angelo Di Livio (Fiorentina), Stefano Fiore (Udinese), Gianluca Zambrotta (Juventus), Luigi Di Biagio (Inter Milan)

Forwards: Filippo Inzaghi (Juventus), Francesco Totti (AS Roma), Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus), Vincenzo Montella (AS Roma), Marco Delvecchio (AS Roma)
.