No place for three stars in Dutch team

Barcelona defender Bogarde was said to have been forced to withdraw because of a hamstring injury. Dutch television on Wednesday showed pictures of him limping his way through training.

However, Ronald de Boer, who was also doubtful for a while because of injury, appears to have made it into the squad.

Rijkaard took 25 players to Switzerland ahead of Saturday’s friendly against Poland, knowing that three would have to be dropped to reach the squad of 22.

Anelka makes the cut

PARIS: Real Madrid’s moody French striker Nicolas Anelka’s turbulent season reached its peak here when he was included in French coach Roger Lemerre’s final squad for the upcoming Euro 2000 finals.

The 21-year-old, who was left out of Aime Jacquet’s 1998 World Cup finals squad, was just one of four changes to the squad that brought France World Cup glory two years ago with a 3-0 win over Brazil.

Anelka, who at one point looked a long shot to be selected when he was dropped from the Real Madrid squad, fined and told to train on his own, joins Bordeaux duo ‘keeper Ulrich Rame and striker Sylvain Wiltord, and Parma’s recent signing from Bordeaux Johan Micoud in the final 22.

The quartet replace ‘keeper Lionel Charbonnier and outfield players Bernard Diomede and Stephane Guivarc’H of Auxerre and the injured Parma midfielder Alain Boqhossian from the 1998 vintage. In the squad packed with experience, no less than 12 of them also played in Euro ’96 where France exited in the semi-finals beaten by the Czech Republic on penalties.

Germany retain squad

BERLIN: Germany made no changes to their 22-man Euro 2000 squad released on May 22 (prefix denotes shirt number)

Goalkeepers: 22-Hans-Joerg Butt (Hamburg SV), 12-Jens Lehmann (Borussia Dortmund), 1-Oliver Kahn (Bayern Munich); Defenders: 2-Markus Babbel (Bayern Munich), 4-Thomas Linke (Bayern Munich), 10-Lothar Matthaeus (New York-New Jersey Metrostars, US), 6-Jens Nowotny (Bayer Leverkusen), 3-Marko Rehmer (Hertha Berlin); Midfielders: 13-Michael Ballack (Bayer Leverkusen), 18-Sebastian Deisler (Hertha Berlin), 14-Dietmar Hamann (Liverpool, England), 8-Thomas Haessler (TSV 1860 Munich), 16-Jens Jeremies (Bayern Munich), 21-Carsten Ramelow (Bayer Leverkusen), 7-Mehmet Scholl (Bayern Munich), 15-Dariusz Wosz (Hertha Berlin), 17-Christian Ziege (Middlesbrough, England); Forwards: 20-Oliver Bierhoff (AC Milan, Italy), 5-Marco Bode (Werder Bremen), 19-Carsten Jancker (Bayern Munich), 9-Ulf Kirsten (Bayer Leverkusen), 11-Paulo Rink (Bayer Leverkusen).