Fresh faces given friendly chance

England and Italy go into important UEFA EURO 2004™ warm-up games tonight with many regular faces missing.

Confidence boost
England play host to Serbia and Montenegro in Leicester while Italy welcome Northern Ireland to the southern town of Campobasso. All four countries will be seeking to use the friendlies to boost their confidence ahead of upcoming qualifiers.

Contrasting positions
The quartet are in contrasting positions in their respective groups at present. England are a point clear of Turkey at the top of Group 7 while the Serbo-Montenegrins and Italians are second and third behind Wales in Group 9, but still able to entertain qualification hopes, which is more than can be said for Northern Ireland, who prop up Group 6 with just one point from four games.

Eriksson concerns
England coach Sven-Göran Eriksson has a multitude of injury concerns with the 11 June qualifier against Slovakia fast approaching. "We have eight players out, nine who could be in the squad," he said, before criticising the structure of the English season, saying: "The risk of getting injured in England is much more than in other countries."

Defenders out
Eriksson's main worry against the Serbians surrounds central defence, with Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Wes Brown and Jonathan Woodgate all ruled out. Matthew Upson is expected to win his second cap in partnership with Gareth Southgate.

Neville tip
England's problems also extend to midfield with captain David Beckham, Kieron Dyer, Nicky Butt and Danny Murphy sidelined and Trevor Sinclair a doubt. Defender Phil Neville has been tipped to be handed a holding midfield role ahead of Owen Hargreaves.

Six-point target
For Serbia and Montenegro tonight's game is doubly crucial, coming as it does ahead of away qualifiers against Finland on Saturday and Azerbaijan four days later. "The match against England will be a test for us," said coach Dejan Savicevic. "We want to play good football and make a show for all the supporters. However our minds at present are on Helsinki and Bacu, because we must get six points."

Kezman absent
Defenders Slobodan Markovic and Dragan Mladenovic have come into a squad missing injured Nikola Lazetic and Dejan Stankovic as well as midfield player Ivica Dragutinovic, while forward Mateja Kezman is absent having made himself unavailable.

Trapattoni decision
Italy do not have as many injuries as the English or the Serbians, but coach Giovanni Trapattoni has elected to rest eleven players against the Northern Irish, many of whom would normally be in with a decent chance of making his starting lineup.

Champions League exertions
Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta, Alessio Tacchinardi, Mauro Camoranesi, Alessandro Del Piero, Alessandro Nesta, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo and Filippo Inzaghi are all missing after their UEFA Champions League final exertions, while Christian Panucci and Francesco Totti are given a break after playing in the Coppa Italia. The likes of Fabrizio Miccoli, Marco Delvecchio and Marco Di Vaio will all be keen to impress if given the chance with Trapattoni due to announce his squad tomorrow for the 11 June qualifier against Finland.

Cantaluppi out
In other EURO 2004™ injury news, Mario Cantaluppi has been ruled out of Switzerland's Group 10 matches against Russia and Albania while midfield player Guti is doubtful for Spain's Group 6 qualifier against Greece on Saturday after spraining his right ankle. Elsewhere in Group 6, Ukraine's Serhiy Kormiltsev is out of his country's Saturday showdown with Armenia

Kozlej call
Jozef Kozlej has been called into the Slovakia squad in place of Tomáš Oravec for his country's games against Turkey and England, while Romania have called Iulian Miu and Zeno Bundea into their squad to face Bosnia-Herzegovina and Norway in Group 2 after defender Iulian Filipescu withdrew with an injured leg. Finally, Croatia will be without defender Mario Tokic for their Group 8 visit to Tallinn to play Estonia.