As excitement about squad selection ratchets up a notch to absolute boiling point, it’s time to bring a little more news your way on those players who will be packing their bags and heading to the biggest Swiss/Austrian tournament since the famous regional cuckoo-clock off in 1879, and who will be sitting at home with Raul and Trezeguet, presumably weeping throughout the whole month of June.

First, and perhaps most shocking is that Sweden’s 36 year old target-man Henrik Larsson will be challenging Johan Elmander (1,657 CPI points in qualifying from 17 shots on goal) for a starting berth after being picked for Euro 2008, two years after retiring from the international scene(!) What’s for sure, is that come next month, they will both be vying for position alongside “possibly the most over-rated player in the world” (according to Martin O’ Neil) Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whose league-winning brace for Internazionale against Parma suggests that he’s in fine form.

And it’s strike one for form over at the Azzurri team camp too, as Italian coach Roberto Donadoni has included 33-year-old Alessandro del Piero, after presumably reading euro2008statistics blog avidly over the last few weeks. Felipe Inzaghi doesn’t make it though, as tempestuous Real Madrid striker Antonio Cassano travels instead – expect him to be sent off at least once.

Here’s an example from World Cup Blog to show exactly what the petulant red-blooded Italian has been known to get up to in the past.

Donadoni says “It’s not us that have to make the change - he has to do something about it. Antonio is a person that I like a lot and he knows that. He is one of those people that you are unable to dislike. But he is no longer a youngster and he must understand that there are certain things you cannot do. He says that once in a while he loses it but he needs to try to control himself.” How right he is!