Few Surprises in Austria's Euro 2016 squad

Austria head coach Marcel Koller has named a 24-man preliminary squad that contains no new names for next month’s European Championships.

One player will be cut from the squad following a friendly against Malta in Klangenfurt on May 31^st.

Koller justified his reasons for selecting an extra squad member; "We've called up 24 players because we don't know exactly who'll be available for the training camp," he explained. "One or two might join up with us later as a result of the relegation play-off in the German Bundesliga."

The squad includes a host of players off the back of successful club seasons. Leicester City left-back Christian Fuchs whose team recently won the Premier League will captain the national side during the Championships.

The talented duo of David Alaba and Marko Arnautovic were included as expected. The 27-year old winger, Arnautovi? has been a revelation for Stoke City this season where he has scored 11 goals in 33 appearances. While David Alaba has been ever present in Bayern Munich’s successful league campaign.

20 Year old Salzburg midfielder, Valentino Lazaro is the youngest member of the squad. So far in his career he has made four appearances for his national side. Impressive showings for Austrian champions Salzburg have earned him his squad place.

A few players remain as injury doubts, 25 year centre-back Aleksandar Dragovic (Dynamo Kiev) and the squads top goal scorer, Marc Janko (FC Basel) have both been out injured but are expected to be fit in time for Austria’s upcoming training camp in Manger Koller’s native Switzerland and thus are included.

The most notable omission is that of Nuremberg midfielder Guido Burgstaller whose place looks to have been taken by Lazaro.

This is the first time that Austria have qualified for the EURO’s (Co-Hosted in 2008) they will be looking to progress from Group F which also contains Hungary, Portugal and Iceland.

Austria will open their Euro 2016 campaign on the 14^th of June with a clash against Hungary at the Stade Matmut-Atlantique (Bordeaux). They will then play Portugal in the Parc de Princess (Paris) and will stay in Paris to conclude their Group F fixtures against Iceland at the Stade de France.

The Austrian Squad in full:

Goalkeepers: Robert Almer (Austria Vienna), Heinz Lindner (Eintracht Frankfurt), Ramazan Oezcan (Ingolstadt).

Defenders: Aleksandar Dragovic (Dynamo Kiev), Christian Fuchs (Leicester), Gyoergy Garics (Darmstadt), Martin Hinteregger (Borussia Monchengladbach), Florian Klein (Stuttgart), Sebastian Proedl (Watford), Markus Suttner (Ingolstadt), Kevin Wimmer (Tottenham).

Midfielders: David Alaba (Bayern Munich), Marko Arnautovic (Stoke), Julian Baumgartlinger (Mainz), Martin Harnik (Stuttgart), Stefan Ilsanker (RB Leipzig), Jakob Jantscher (Luzern), Zlatko Junuzovic (Werder Bremen), Valentino Lazaro (Salzburg), Marcel Sabitzer (RB Leipzig), Alessandro Schoepf (Schalke).

Forwards: Lukas Hinterseer (Ingolstadt), Rubin Okotie (1860 Munich), Marc Janko (FC Basel).