Domenech to call up extra players

Domenech to call up extra players

France coach Raymond Domenech will call on a group of 29 players on Sunday when he names his provisional squad for Euro 2008.

The end-of-season fixture schedule has not helped Domenech as he looks to settle on the party of 23 he will take to the June tournament in Austria and Switzerland.

There are a host of Les Bleus players taking part in three finals over the next week - the Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea on Wednesday, the Coupe de France final between Lyon and Paris St Germain next Saturday and the Coppa Italia final between Internazionale and Roma on the same day.

Domenech will therefore name an enlarged provisional group on Sunday, which he will then trim by six later in the month after any potential injuries are taken into account.

Domenech said back in March he already had in mind 20 of the 23 players he was going to choose.

Gregory Coupet, Mickael Landreau and Sebastien Frey will be his final choices for the three goalkeepers and the three out-and-out strikers should be Thierry Henry, Karim Benzema and Nicolas Anelka.

So it is in defence and midfield where the conundrums lie.

Willy Sagnol will be the first-choice right-back but it looks to be a battle between Bacary Sagna and Francois Clerc to be the Bayern Munich veteran's understudy.

At centre-back, Julien Escude, Philippe Mexes and Sebastien Squillaci are competing to be the back-ups to Lilian Thuram and William Gallas, while Eric Abidal and Patrice Evra are shoo-ins at left-back.

Domenech will probably have to decide between Hatem Ben Arfa and Jerome Rothen for the second left-wing slot behind Florent Malouda.


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