Marseille's Djibril Cisse was one of the seven players that coach Raymond Domenech removed from his 30 member provisional squad to trim it to the official limit of 23. Cisse was dropped in favour of St. Etienne's Bafetimbi Gomis, who scored twice in France's 2-0 win over Ecuador in Grenoble. Mickael Landreau, Philippe Mexes, Julien Escude, Hatem Ben Arfa, Alou Diarra and Mathieu Flamini are the other six. Citing the decision as the one of the toughest of his career, Domenech reportedly said that Escude was dropped due to a knee injury, while the others missed the Euro 2008 bus due to choice.

France 23 member squad for Euro 2008 :-

Sébastien Frey ( Fiorentina)

Grégory Coupet ( Lyon)

Steve Mandanda ( Marseille)

Eric Abidal ( Barcelona)

Lilian Thuram ( Juventus)

William Gallas ( Arsenal)

Willy Sagnol ( Bayern)

François Clerc ( Lyon)

Sébastien Squillaci ( Monaco)

Jean Alain Boumsong ( Lyon)

Patrice Evra ( Manchester United)

Frank Ribéry ( Marseille)

Lassana Diarra ( Portsmouth)

Claude Makelele ( Chelsea)

Patrick Vieira ( Inter Milan)

Jérémy Toulalan ( Lyon)

Samir Nasri ( Marseille)

Nicolas Anelka ( Chelsea)

Sidney Govou ( Lyon)

Thierry Henry ( Barcelona)

Karim Benzema ( Lyon)

Florent Malouda ( Chelsea)

Bafétimbi Gomis ( St.Etienne)