Mano Menezes

Mano Manezes has called up 23 players for the game versus France in the Stade de France.
Keeper Julio César returns but there's still no place for Maicon, Juan, Lúcio and Kaká. The younger players, such as Neymar, who are currently appearing for Brazil's U-20s in Peru, have also not been called up.

The South American Youth Championship takes place in Peru from Sunday with ten teams hopeful of grabbing the title along with one of the four available places up for grabs in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup which takes place later in the year. The tournament which brought the likes of Lionel Messi, Javier Mascherano and Alexandre Pato to worldwide acclaim welcomes in a new generation of potential superstars and Stoppage Time International Football Blog looks back at the history of the event and previews this year's tournament.

Antonio Cassano made his debut for AC Milan in a friendly against Al Ahli which they won, 2-1. No goalscoring spectaculars but some useful work down the wings for the former Sampdoria player.

Cassano had a very public falling out with Riccardo Garrone, Sampodoria's president of Sampdoria and his situation became untenable with the case going to arbitration.

James Richardson kept us up to date with all the Serie A news

Back in the 1990s, it was fair to say we on the west of Europe had something of a love affair with Il Calico. Serie A was the most glamorous league in the world. Our appetite for Italian football was satisfied by Network Two's highlights show of a Tuesday evening, supplemented by Channel Four's live match coverage Sunday afternoon.

Photo by Miranda Christlock/UCSB Media Relations

BY ADAM SERRANO

The MLS combine is a high-pressure situation that is sometimes the most pressure-packed setting some players have ever faced.

Not so for UCSB defender Michael Boxall, who has played in his fair share of high-profile matches.

AC Milan 4-4 Udinese ( Alexandre Pato*2, Mehdi Benatia OG, Zlatan Ibrahimovic/ Antonio Di Natale*2, Alexis Sanchez, German Denis) January 9, 2011- Sunday, San Siro, Milan Lots of late drama in this Milan 4-4 Udinese game. Udinese were leading 3-1 with less than a quarter of an hour to go. Milan clawed their way back [.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's injury-time equalizer salvaged a 4-4 draw for Serie A leader AC Milan against Udinese at the San Siro on Sunday. Milan went behind 3-1 in the second half courtesy of two goals from Serie A top scorer Antonio Di Natale. However, a Mehdi Benatia own goal and Alexandre Pato's second goal of the match [.

Morning all. Throughout January Soccerlens are going to be bringing you a daily round-up of the morning's various goings-on. Be it juicy morsels of spurious transfer gossip or real, actual bona fide news, rest assured, we'll have it covered.

Here's this morning's batch.

Duck hunting season opens at Chelsea.

The Italian Football FanCast is the podcast for fans of Serie A and Calcio. On this edition of the Italian Football FanCast, we look back at what soem are calling the best weekend in Serie A so far. If people say Italian football is boring then point them to week 19 of this season. We had an Edinson Cavani hat-trick at the San Paolo, comebacks from Inter and Fiorentina, plus a quite extraordinary.

Before Serie A went under way this season, Milan was in a problematic situation worth of Manchester City, they had too many forwards. Five forwards to be exact were on the Red and Black payroll. Ronaldinho, Alexandre Pato, Marco Borriello, and newly signed Robinho, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (on loan from Barcelona) were all vying for a position in the front line.

Serie A 2010/2011: The Story so far Too many strikers perfect for AC Milan broth is a post from: Just Football

It's been an intriguing season in Italy so far. Here's Joe Sharratt with the story so far.

As the build up to the 2010/11 Serie A season began it was very much a case of one self-obsessed, megalomaniac in, and one self-obsessed megalomaniac out.

Gazzetta dello Sport A Wasted Ibra Zlatan Ibrahimovic's most spectacular career goals was not enough for Milan, who were pegged back 1-1 at Lecce Good thing there is Del Piero After two losses a shot in the arm for the Bianconeri still in emergency mode (2-1). A moment of magic from Alexandro and Aquilani punish Bari.

For the second consecutive week Milan failed to claim all three points. An absolute wonder strike by Zlatan Ibrahimovic that was deserving of a match winner was cancelled out late in the game by a Ruben Olivera equaliser. In truth, Max Allegri's side did not deserve victory. The Rossoneri lacked imagination in the final third and only recorded three strikes on goal in the whole match.

An Alexandre Pato brace sent Serie A leaders Ac Milan into the Semi-Finals of the Coppa Italia beating Sampdoria 2-1 at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.