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MILAN

Zlatan to sit out friendly against Germany

Swedish international striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will not play in Wednesday's friendly against Germany, coach Erik Hamrén said Monday.

Zlatan to sit out friendly against Germany

“As the situation stands it is better that he rests,” Hamrén told reporters in the southern Swedish city of Malmö.

The AC Milan forward “got a few knocks in the match against Inter (Milan)” on Sunday, Hamren explained, according to the TT news agency.

The widely anticipated friendly match against Germany in the southwestern city of Gothenburg would therefore have to go ahead without Sweden’s biggest star.

“If Wednesday’s game had been a qualifying match he would have played,” Hamrén said.

The announcement comes the day after Ibrahimovic scored a penalty to sink Inter in his first meeting with his former club wearing the red and black stripes of Milan.

The Swedish striker found himself fending off a number of touch challenges, including a nasty clash with Marco Materazzi which sent the Inter Milan centre-back to hospital to hospital.

Meanwhile Germany coach Joachim Loew has called a total of four uncapped players from Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund and second-placed Mainz into his squad for Wednesday’s friendly in Sweden.

Loew has left a host of senior players out, including striker Miroslav Klose, defender Philipp Lahm, who captained Germany to third at the World Cup, attacking midfielder Thomas Mueller and playmaker Mesut Ozil.

“The game in Sweden is a great way to give a few fringe players their chance to show they can play within our team’s philosophy,” said Loew.

“They have all earned their chances by convincing and consistent performances in the Bundesliga and may in the near future make the leap to the international level.

“It will give those players a chance to train with the team and our plan is that some of them will play in Gothenburg and win their first cap.”

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MILAN

Romanian billionaire and seven others die in Milan plane crash

A light aircraft piloted by Romanian billionaire Dan Petrescu crashed into an empty office building near Milan on Sunday, killing him, his wife and son, and all five others aboard.

Police and rescue teams outside the office building where a small plane crashed in the Milan suburb of San Donato.
Police and rescue teams outside the office building where a small plane crashed in the Milan suburb of San Donato on October 3rd. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP

The single-engine Pilatus PC-12 had taken off from Milan’s Linate airport shortly after 1pm headed for Olbia in the north of the Italian island of Sardinia.

It crashed just a few minutes later into a building in San Donato Milanese, a town southeast of Milan, according to aviation agency ANSV, which has opened an investigation.

Witnesses said the plane was already in flames before it crashed into an office building undergoing renovations.

Petrescu’s 65-year-old wife, who also had French nationality, and their son Dan Stefano, 30, were killed.

Italian media identified the other passengers as entrepreneur Filippo Nascimbene, a 33-year-old from Lombardy, with his wife, young son and mother-in-law, who have French nationality.

Petrescu, 68, was one of Romania’s richest men. He headed a major construction firm and owned a string of hypermarkets and malls. He also held Germany nationality, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.

Flames engulfed the two-storey building, next to the yellow line subway terminus.

“The impact was devastating,” Carlo Cardinali, of the Milan fire brigade, told news agency Ansa.

Deputy prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano was quoted by Corriere as saying that the plane’s black box had been recovered.

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