FCBARCELONA.CAT

18.03.2007 18:15

10 players on International duty this week

Euro 2008, the African Nations Cup and the preparation games for the Americas Cup take precedence this week over La Liga. This will affect Barca, given that 10 players travel to be with their national squads.

After the last league game against Recreativo de Huelva, now its international week. Over the next week training at the Masia for Barca will only be for a few. 10 squad members have been picked to play for their national teams meaning that Frank Rijkaard will be without the majority part of his team over the next few days. Xavi, Puyol and Iniesta are on Luis Aragonés's list to play for Spain; Zambrotta will go to Italy; Gio will play for Holand; and Frenchman Thuram has been picked by Raymond Domènech; Eto'o will be with Cameroon and Màrquez and Ronaldinho will be on their way to play for Mexico and Brasil.

Aragonés picks three azulgranas

Xavi, Puyol and Iniesta will join Luis Aragonés' Spainish squad this Tuesday to play the next qualifying games for Euro 2008. Spain play on Saturday the 24th of March against Denmark in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium and on Wednesday 28th March, in Son Moix stadium Mallorca against Eidur Gudjohnsen's Iceland, who has also been called up.

Zambrotta, Gio y Thuram, also on duty

The rest of Barca's Euro 2008 players are Gianluca Zambrotta, Giovani Van Bronckhorst and Lilian Thuram. The Italian has been given the nod from the azurre manager Roberto Donadoni, who play on Saturday against Scotland in Bari. The Dutch full-back has two games with Holland, Saturday against Romanía and Wednesday, against Slovenia. Thuram will play on Saturday at 7pm for France against Lithuania, and on Wednesday in a friendly against Austria.

Eto'o, on his way to the African Nations Cup
Samuel Eto'o has been picked for Cameroon to play against Liberia, in a qualification game for the African's Nation Cup 2008. Eto'o will travel via París to Yaonde, to meet up with the rest of his national squad.

Friendlies for the America's Cup

As well as official qualifying games, there are also a series of friendlies over the next few days. Both Rafael Màrquez and Ronaldinho will be involved. The Mexican will join up with his compatriots and teammates on Wednesday to play a friendly on Saturday against Paraguay in Monterrey and on Wednesday against Ecuador in Oakland. Ronaldinho has to travel to Gothenburg to play against Chile (Saturday) and Stockholm to play Ghana (Friday, 27th March).