Karimi in Milan for Champions League clash

PFDC – MILAN, Ali Karimi’s chances of finally getting some playing time at Schalke are still alive. The Iranian veteran playmaker is one of 19 players which were taken to Milan for the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal duel against Inter on Tuesday by new coach Ralf Ragnick.

Ragnick had overtaken the team from fired Felix Magath last week and vowed to exclude several players, among them Karimi, from the team training because he considered the roster too big to work professionally.

However, due to a couple of injuries in the squad the 32-year-old now made the trip to Italy and might well make the 18-men-roster for the match.

Karimi had joined Schalke two months ago, however, didn’t play a single minute for them eversince.

Below comes the squad:

Goal: Manuel Neuer, Mathias Schober

Defense: Benedikt Höwedes, Christoph Metzelder, Lukas Schmitz, Atsuto Uchida, Sergio Escudero, Hans Sarpei, Nicolas Plestan, Kyriakos Papadopoulos

Midfield: Jurado, Julian Draxler, Hao Junmin, Alexander Baumjohann, Joel Matip, Ali Karimi

Attack: Raul, Edu, Jefferson Farfan