National coach John Buttigieg and his assistant Carmel Busuttil named a twenty-man squad ahead of the EURO 2012 qualifier against Croatia in programme on Friday at the National Stadium, kick-off at 19:00.

This marks the return of Wellington Phoenix defender Manny Muscat who was not included in the squad for the last four qualifiers against Georgia and Croatia away from home and the two games against Greece.

Besides Justin Haber, Alex Muscat and Shaun Bajada who were were left out of the provisional squad as they are recovering from injuries, the players to be dropped were Edward Herrera of Hibernians, Kenneth Scicluna of Qormi, John Mintoff and Christian Caruana of Floriana and Sheffield United’s Daniel Bogdanovic.

Bogdanovic, Herrera and Caruana were part of the squad for last month’s friendly match against the Central African Republic. Bogdanovic was included in the starting line-up while Caruana was included as a substitute.

The squad is made up of:
goalkeepers Reuben Gauci (Marsaxlokk), Andrew Hogg (Valletta);
defenders Andrei Agius, Steve Borg (Valletta), Roderick Briffa (Valletta), Jonathan Caruana (Valletta), Clayton Failla (Hibs), Carlo Mamo (Marsaxlokk), Joseph Zerafa (Birkirkara);
midfielders Trevor Cilia (Birkirkara), Paul Fenech (Birkirkara), Ryan Fenech (Valletta), John Hutchinson (Chengdu Blades), Manny Muscat (Wellington Phoenix), Jamie Pace (Valletta), Gareth Sciberras (Birkirkara);
forwards Andrew Cohen (Hibernians), Michael Mifsud (Valletta), Andre` Schembri (Olyimpiakos Volou), Ivan Woods (Floriana).