Cyprus Possible Team: Antonis Georgallides, Alexis Yarpozis, Elias Charalambous, Paraskevas Christou, Andreas Constantinou, Chryssis Michael, Stelios Okkarides, Constantinos Charalambides, Constantinos Makrides, Stathis Aloneftis, Ioannis Okkas.

Italy  Possible Team: Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Gamberini, Fabio Grosso, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Daniele De Rossi, Mauro Camoranesi, Luca Toni, Antonio Di Natale.

VfB Stuttgart have confirmed that they turned down a Bundesliga record bid of €25 million from Bayern Munich for star striker Mario Gomez…

The powerful striker has had sensational back-to-back seasons with Stuttgart and has been linked with clubs all around Europe, including Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Milan and Roma.

However, a poor Euro 2008 - his first showing on the big stage - cooled much interest from around Europe, but Bayern Munich remained in the hunt to lure yet another striker to the Allianz Arena, where they already have Lucas Podolski, Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose.

Bayern have inisted that they are not yet out of the hunt and will swoop for Super Mario next year. Stuttgart, meanwhile, are satisfied to have maintained their stance.

“We didn’t want any team’s money,” said Stuttgart manager Horst Heldt. “We wanted to keep Germany’s player of the year.”

Ref From Hans Schmidt, Goal.com

Azzurri marksman Luca Toni has faith that Marcello Lippi will lead Italy back to winning ways.

The Viareggio native led Italy to World Cup glory in the summer of 2006, but his successor Roberto Donadoni was unable to extend the golden era.

After a miserable Euro 2008, Lippi is back at the helm and Toni thinks he can reverse La Nazionale’s fortunes.

“There’s lots of pressure, but he is the right choice and he will take things forward,” the Bayern Munich star said on Sport Sera.

“What went wrong at Euro 2008? We got off to a really bad start and we ran into a side that were on great form at the time.

“We turned things around well to get through the first round and we deserved to qualify for the knockout stages, but Spain were worthy winners of the competition.”

Lippi’s second coming begins with a friendly against Austria in France on August 20.

Ref From channel4.com