International duty calls for eleven Reds

FCBayernNews · News fetcher Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 1240 votes: 2

31.08.2006

The new Bundesliga season is only three weeks old, but Bayern have already entered the first break in their domestic campaign with a full programme of international fixtures on Saturday 2 September and Wednesday 6 September. As ever, that means Felix Magath will be working with a rump squad reduced by approximately half as he prepares his troops for the Reds' next competitive encounter, a challenging German Cup trip to Hamburg outfit St. Pauli on Saturday 9 September.

By Thursday, a total of eleven of the 25-strong first-team squad had left Munich to join up with their national squads, with all the stars expected back in Bavaria a week's later. Most of the club's internationals, many of whom are only just picking up form after a brief and delayed pre-season caused by the World Cup, face crunch qualifying fixtures with their countries.

Road to Euro 2008

Germany duly open their Euro 2008 Austria/Switzerland qualifying programme against Ireland in Stuttgart on Saturday, before taking on minnows San Marino in Serravalle the following Wednesday. Bayern supply Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm and Lukas Podolski to Joachim Löw's squad.

Both Willy Sagnol and Owen Hargreaves will start as France and England respectively set out on the road to the European showdown. Sagnol (pictured) and his team-mates travel to Georgia at the weekend before a mouth-watering World Cup Final re-match with Italy in Paris next Wednesday, while Hargreaves and Co will be expected to collect maximum points against Andorra and Macedonia.

Asian Cup and friendlies

Daniel van Buyten and Belgium opened their qualifying campaign on 18 August, but a disappointing goalless draw with Kazakhstan has increased the pressure on the 'Red Devils' ahead of next Wednesday's trip to Armenia. Switching continents, Ali Karimi joins up with Iran for important AFC Asian Cup qualifiers against South Korea and Syria.

Friendly matches are the order of the day for South American duo Lucio and Claudio Pizarro. The iconic defender appears for Brazil against arch-rivals Argentina in London before a midweek meeting with Wales, while Pizza and Peru take on Ecuador in New Jersey, USA.

U-21 Euro action

Last but not least, Michael Rensing and Andreas Ottl are away on Germany U-21 duty in European championship qualifying action against Northern Ireland on 1 September and Romania on 5 September.

MUTU

Hopefully the players come back without any injuries, so as not to disrupt our early season form.