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BERLIN: Hosts Germany will have four goalkeepers at Euro 2024 but there were few other surprises in coach Julian Nagelsmann’s preliminary squad unveiled on Thursday (May 16).
VfB Stuttgart keeper Alexander Nuebel was named along with Manuel Neuer, Oliver Baumann and Marc-Andre ter Stegen as Nagelsmann otherwise largely showed faith in the players he has used over the past seven months.
“When you have this structure which is still growing but fragile after our performances in March, bringing in new elements could trigger an implosion of that structure and you would have to start from scratch,” the coach said ahead of his first international tournament.
Germany beat France and Netherlands in back-to-back friendlies in March, their best results for some time, and the three-times European champions have not won a major trophy since the 2014 World Cup.
Nagelsmann said having four keepers was crucial for spreading the workload during the tournament.
“We have nominated four goalkeepers and we will go with four to the tournament. Nuebel has deserved the nomination,” Nagelsmann said.
“Why four keepers? You can have goalkeepers in training as well and Manuel (Neuer) does not always have to do it. We can control training and spread the load.
“That means 22 infield players. I can live with that very well. We can still do proper training with at least 20 infield players if some are missing.”
In veterans Thomas Mueller, Toni Kroos and Neuer, there are three 2014 world champions in the 27-man squad which must be cut to 26 before the tournament.
Aleksandar Pavlovic, 20, who missed the March friendlies through injury and is still waiting for his first cap, earned a place following his superb form for Bayern Munich.
Robert Andrich, Florian Wirtz and Jonathan Tah are the Bayer Leverkusen players in the squad having helped the Bundesliga champions go through the season unbeaten across all competitions.
The two most notable absences were Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League finalist Mats Hummels and Bayern Munich’s Leon Goretzka who narrowly missed the cut.
Germany kick off their Group A campaign in the tournament opener against Scotland on June 14. They also play Hungary and Switzerland in the first stage.
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