Big names still snubbed.

David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Raul Gonzalez are three of Real Madrid's biggest stars.

All three have been snubbed by their national team coaches and can't find a way back.

Former England captain Beckham was dropped by Steve McClaren after the World Cup and, despite the absence of eight squad players due to injuries, there is no room for the Madrid midfielder for today's friendly against Netherlands in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Van Nistelrooy won't be there either, even though he scored four goals in Madrid's 4-1 Spanish league victory over Osasuna on Sunday.

Netherlands coach Marco van Basten dropped the striker after the World Cup and Van Nistelrooy has since said that he won't play for the national team as long as the former AC Milan soccer great is in charge.

Gonzalez, currently playing midfield on the right side for Madrid, has fallen out of favour with Spain's veteran coach Luis Aragones, whose team hosts Romania today. This is the second game Raul has missed, even though he is Spain's all-time leading scorer with 44 goals from 102 matches.

"With me he has never played as a right-sided midfielder," Aragones said. "Raul can play in any position, but in my opinion he is a second striker."

The games are among 17 friendlies being played alongside seven Euro 2008 qualifying games.

Three-time champion Germany seems to be cruising to the championship -- being co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland -- and is confident of making it four wins in four Group D games when it visits Cyprus. A victory will mean the Germans regain top spot from the Czech Republic, which hosts Denmark in a friendly today. The Cypriots, who have never come close to reaching one of soccer's big events, outplayed Ireland 5-2 in Group D action a month ago.

British bookmakers rate the Germans the 11-2 favourites to win Euro 2008. Germany has won five games in a row.

Portugal, the other World Cup losing semifinalist, is struggling to qualify, however. Luiz Felipe Scolari's team has never won a major soccer title and currently lies in fifth place in Group A, six points behind group leader Serbia, as it hosts Kazakhstan in Coimbra, Portugal.

In other Group A games, second-place Finland should be confident of beating next-to-last Armenia at home. Belgium and Poland, just behind the top two, face each other in Brussels, Belgium.

The other two Euro 2008 games -- Israel-Croatia and Macedonia-Russia -- are both in Group E and the results could cause major problems for England.

England could slip to fourth if Israel and Croatia tie. England, Croatia, Israel and Macedonia each have seven points and Russia five.