Donadoni calls Oddo, Mauri; 3 other Laziali to their respective teams

In preparation for the third and fourth matchdays of Euro 2008 qualifying, azzurri coach Roberto Donadoni has called up Massimo Oddo and Stefano Mauri to serve on the national team. Seeing Oddo at least on the bench if not on the pitch for the azzurri is no surprise, but it's great to see that Mauri may be given a chance to play on the international stage. Tommaso Rocchi was not called up, and although Donadoni's choices for strikers don't seem too strong, the decision is reasonable since Rocchi did not prove himself the last time he got to wear the blue jersey.

Three other biancocelesti also were called to serve their respective nations: Goran Pandev with Macedonia, Gabi Mudingayi with Belgium, and Igli Tare with Albania. Since many teams are losing several players to national team duty, there is no Serie A play scheduled for this weekend.

Below is the full team roster for the azzurri, as well as the match times for all the games that Laziali will be participating in:

Gli Azzurri

Goalkeepers: Christian Abbiati (Torino), Marco Amelia (Livorno), Gianluigi Buffon (Juve)

Defenders: Andrea Barzagli and Cristian Zaccardo (Palermo), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Fabio Grosso and Marco Materazzi (Inter), Alessandro Nesta (Milan), Massimo Oddo (Lazio), Manuel Pasqual (Fiorentina), Gianluca Zambrotta (Barcellona)

Midfielders: Mauro Camoranesi (Juve), Gennaro Delvecchio (Samp), Daniele De Rossi and Simone Perrotta (Roma Merda), Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo (Milan), Stefano Mauri (Lazio)

Forwards: Alessandro Del Piero (Juve), David Di Michele (Palermo), Antonio Di Natale and Vincenzo Iaquinta (Udinese), Filippo Inzaghi (Milan), Luca Toni (Fiorentina)

Match times

Italy - Ukraine, 20:50 CET (4:50 PM EDT) Sat, Oct 7. Stadio Olimpico, Rome.
US TV: Rai International, Setanta (live); Telemundo (delay 4:00 PM EDT)

Georgia - Italy, 22:00 MSD (2:00 PM EDT) Wed, Oct 11. Boris Paichadze Stadium, Tbilisi
US TV: Setanta (live)

For other match times see the UEFA fixtures listing.