Italy boss Cesare Prandelli looks like he'll unleash Villarreal striker Giuseppe Rossi against Spain on Wednesday.
The two countries will face each other in a Bari friendly in midweek, but it looks as if the Coach won't field his previous dream pairing of Mario Balotelli and Antonio Cassano.
Italy boss Cesare Prandelli looks like he'll unleash Villarreal striker Giuseppe Rossi against Spain on Wednesday.
The two countries will face each other in a Bari friendly in midweek, but it looks as if the Coach won't field his previous dream pairing of Mario Balotelli and Antonio Cassano.
"At the moment Rossi is ahead of everyone else," the Coach noted. "He's playing with the consistency and the assuredness of a first team starter.
"Cassano? He has worked well with Milan. He's lost 3.5kg since he started pre-season training. He knows that he needs to lose weight."
Spain will represent Prandelli's biggest test since taking over the side following World Cup 2010 failure, but the tactician is eager to see how his side will react.
"I'm curious to understand how far we have come in narrowing the gap between ourselves and Spain's champions," he continued.
"I want to see an Italian side with personality.
"Spain, as always, will have an extraordinary amount of time in possession of the ball, but we have to be good in getting it off them. Otherwise it'll get complicated.
"There will be a lot of players who won't be 100 per cent fit, in our side and in theirs. But Spain will have the advantage of being more of a team than us."