No Cassano in the Italian squad !

Italy coach, Marcello Lippi, has named the Italian squad for the upcoming World Cup 2010 qualification matches against Montenegro on 28/03/09 and Ireland on 01/04/09.

Lippi did not call Sampdoria star Cassano, however, he called some new players including Roma's Marco Motta, Genoa's Salvatore Bocchetti and Sampdoria's Giampaolo Pazzini.

Lippi also called Roma's Matteo Brighi(where he did not play for Italy since 2002), Lazio's Pasquale Foggia, Atalanta's Sergio Floccari, and Udinese's Simone Pepe although the calls for him to be excluded.

Alberto Aquilani, Simone Perrotta, Mauro Camoranesi, Luca Toni and Alberto Gilardino were excluded from the squad because of injury.

Below is Italy's full squad for the upcoming matches:

Goalkeepers:

1. Gianluigi Buffon
2. Marco Amelia
3. Morgan De Sanctis

Defenders:

1. Salvatore Bocchetti
2. Fabio Cannavaro
3. Giorgio Chiellini
4. Andrea Dossena
5. Alessandro Gamberini
6. Fabio Grosso
7. Marco Motta
8. Gianluca Zambrotta

Midfielders:

1. Matteo Brighi
2. Daniele De Rossi
3. Pasquale Foggia
4. Riccardo Montolivo
5. Angelo Palombo
6. Simone Pepe
7. Andrea Pirlo

Strikers:

1. Antonio Di Natale
2. Vincenzo Iaquinta
3. Giampaolo Pazzini
4. Fabio Quagliarella
5. Giuseppe Rossi