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Barring a few last-minute tweaks, the final Euro 2008 squads have been announced and without wishing to blow World Soccer’s trumpet too much, our correspondents have done pretty well in predicting the final 23-man parties of their respective countries.

Such are the deadlines for a monthly magazine that for our Summer edition previewing the tournament, our correspondents were required to file copy in
the first week of April. That meant predicting the final Euro championship squads at least six weeks before the actual announcements were made.

If past experience is anything to go by, it’s virtually impossible to predict a final tournament squad. Anything over 85 per cent accuracy is quite an achievement. So congratulations to Zdravko Reic (Croatia), Dariusz Kurowski (Poland), Harry Miltner (Austria) and Lou Economopoulos (Greece) for exactly predicting the players who made their respective final 23-man squads.

There have been a few surprises – Henrik Larsson coming out of international retirement for a third time to play for Sweden was totally unexpected, while St Etienne striker Bafetimbi Gomis had a sensational debut for France in last week’s friendly against Ecuador, scoring two goals to edge out Djibril Cisse from the squad.

Elsewhere, selections went pretty much as unexpected. Raul was overlooked by Spain coach Luis Aragones, while the Czech Republic’s Karel Bruckner decided against a recall for veteran Pavel Nedved despite great speculation that the Juventus midfielder would be called up.

There are very few big-name absences from the squads, with the possible exception of Italy’s Francesco Totti, who was never likely to go back on his decision to quit the international scene. Only the injuries to Tomas Rosicky (Czech Republic) and Eduardo (Croatia) are likely to have a serious impact on their respective teams’ chances.

For everybody else, the excitement is mounting.

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