Montolivo gets cut, final roster of 23 submitted

By: Francesco | May 28th, 2008

As many people expected, the odd man out for the Azzurri is Riccardo Montolivo. The 23 year old midfielder had a chance of staying since Perrotta was injured, but Perrotta is 100% fit and therefore Montolivo was deemed surplus to requirements. The young midfielder will now most probably play in the Olympics this summer, and he will definitely be a main fixture for the Azzurri after Euro 2008 because he is really talented. Reports were that the decision was between Montolivo and Quagliarella, not Aquilani as most people speculated. Montolivo even said in an interview that he suspected that he would be on the candidates to get the cut, and would try his hardest to avoid it. However Donadoni thought 8 midfielders was too many and therefore decided to let one go. So the final roster of 23 were submitted, and the player numbers were chosen, and the squad took the official pictures. All that good stuff after the jump.

Here is Italy’s official roster for Euro 2008:

PORTIERI: Amelia (Livorno), Buffon (Juventus), De Sanctis (Siviglia);
DIFENSORI: Barzagli (Palermo), F. Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Chiellini (Juventus), Grosso (Lione), Materazzi (Inter), Panucci (Roma) e Zambrotta (Barcellona);
CENTROCAMPISTI: Ambrosini (Milan), Aquilani (Roma), Camoranesi (Juventus), De Rossi (Roma), Gattuso (Milan), Perrotta (Roma) e Pirlo (Milan);
ATTACCANTI: Borriello (Genoa), Cassano (Sampdoria), Del Piero (Juventus), Di Natale (Udinese), Quagliarella (Udinese), Toni (Bayern Monaco).

Here are the jersey numbers (#10 stays with De Rossi):

1 Buffon, 2 Panucci, 3 Grosso, 4 Chiellini, 5 Cannavaro, 6 Barzagli, 7 Del Piero, 8 Gattuso, 9 Toni, 10 De Rossi, 11 Di Natale, 12 Borriello, 13 Ambrosini, 14 Amelia, 15 Quagliarella, 16 Camoranesi, 17 De Sanctis, 18 Cassano, 19 Zambrotta, 20 Perrotta, 21 Pirlo, 22 Aquilani, 23 Materazzi.

De Rossi keeps the #10 shirt, and Cassano takes his traditional #18.

Here are the official pictures: