Spain squad named for U-19 European Championships

The RFEF have on Monday evening announced the squad which will take part in the preparation for the UEFA U-19 European Championships in Romania. Training, centred as usual at the Las Rozas ‘Soccer City’ complex, will begin on July 4^th which will be the first meeting of the 23 man group.

From then on selectors will make judgements on the players to cut the group down to 18, who will then travel to Bucharest, Romania on July 16^th to begin the actual competition.

This initial 23 list fails to contain nine players who featured in qualifying with Dani Pacheco, Jordi Amat, Kevin, Jesé, and Rubén Sobrino all missing. Also missing are Sergi Roberto, Jordi Amat, Koke, Isco and Muniesa but the thinking there is that these five in particular will be heading to the World U-20 competition held in Colombia – where recent U-21 European Championships winners Iker Muniaín and Martín Montoya are also expected to feature.

On the contrary there are nine new inclusions, with Alejandro Vallejo, Borja González, Jonás Ramalho Jimeno, Javier Espinosa, Víctor Álvarez, Juan Muñiz, Adrián Ortola, Paco Alcácer and José Campaña all being called up to this level for the first time.

The squad of 23 is as follows (with 5 players to be discarded upon completion of preparation):

Goalkeepers: Edgar Badia (Espanyol), Yeray Gómez Ferragu (Real Mallorca), Adrián Ortola (Villarreal)

Defenders: Ignasi Miquel (Arsenal), Sergi Gómez (Barcelona), Daniel Carvajal (Real Madrid), Jonás Ramalho Jimeno, Jon Aurtenetxe (both Athletic Bilbao), Alberto Blázquez and Victor Álvarez (Espanyol)

Midfielders: Alejandro Vallejo (Alaves), Gerard Deulofeu, Rafinha, Javier Espinosa (all three Barcelona), Pablo Sarabia, Alex (both Real Madrid), Juan Muñiz (Sporting Gijón), Rubén Pardo (Real Sociedad), José Campaña (Sevilla)

Attackers: Borja González (Atlético Madrid), Álvaro Morata (Real Madrid), Juanmi (Málaga), Paco Alcácer (Valencia)

Spain will be participating in Group B, alongside Belgium, Serbia and Turkey. The match schedule is as follows:

Group Stage:

Spain vs. Belgium, 20^th July @ 18:00 in Mogosoaia

Serbia vs. Spain, 23^rd July @ 20:00 in Chiajna

Turkey vs. Spain 25^th July @ 20.00 in Chiajna

Final stage:

Semi-Final 1, 29^th July @ 17:45 in Mogosoaia
Semi-Final 2, 29^th July @ 20:00 in Chiajna

Final, 1^st August @ 19:00 in Chiajna

*UPDATE*

Injuries have meant that Barcelona duo Javier Espinosa and Rafinha both miss out, also not travelling to Romania are Víctor Álvarez, Yeray Gómez Ferragu and Alejandro Vallejo who were in the end not selected for the final 18.

Tags: Deulofeu, European Championships, Morata, Spain, Under-19