World champions Germany and holders Spain name provisional Euro 2016 squads

World champions Germany and holders Spain name provisional Euro 2016 squads
By Euronews
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Competition heavyweights Germany and Spain on Tuesday unveiled their provisional squads for the European Championships that take place in France next

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Competition heavyweights Germany and Spain on Tuesday unveiled their provisional squads for the European Championships that take place in France next month.

Joachim Loew – coach of World Champions Germany – has named 27 players in his preliminary group.

Although confident in his mix of experience and youth Loew admitted more work is needed to be tournament ready.

He said: “I think we are self-confident but not arrogant. We are strong but we know we are not undefeatable and that we have some work to do in the next weeks to be able to play at our top level in this European championship.”

Bastian Schweinsteiger was named captain despite not playing since March due to a knee ligament injury.

He is one of 14 squad players to have lifted the 2014 World Cup, while there are three uncapped players in Joshua Kimmich, Julian Weigl and Leroy Sane.

Spain boss Vicente Del Bosque has made some high-profile omissions in Chelsea striker Diego Costa, Manchester United’s Juan Mata, Atletico Madrid’s Fernando Torres and Gunner Santi Cazorla.

But Del Bosque explained: “The competition is what it is. We can’t call everybody, it wouldn’t be possible. With some pain we have to remove some names from the list and look for what we think is the best.”

Del Bosque has given the nod to Athletic Bilbao’s 35-year-old striker Aritz Aduriz while there have been call-ups for uncapped Saul Niguez of Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid’s Lucas Vazquez.

Spain head into the tournament as reigning two-time defending European Champions and will be looking to write another chapter in Euro history with a three-peat in France.

All 24 teams for the tournament have until 31 May to submit their 23-man squads.

The 15th edition of the UEFA European Championship begins on June 10. Hosts France kick off proceedings with Group A’s opener against Romania at the Stade de France.

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