Giorgio Chiellini is ‘curious and excited’ to see Luciano Spalletti’s Italy and lists his favourites for the EURO 2024 tournament. ‘We have the best goalkeeper in the world.’
The Azzurri are the reigning European Champions after Chiellini lifted the trophy as captain at Wembley Stadium in the summer of 2021, but after that they failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Now Roberto Mancini has been replaced by Spalletti and many of the players who proved so pivotal to the EURO 2020 triumph have either retired or been replaced.
“It is a young squad, we are in the middle of a changing cycle, even more so now that Francesco Acerbi is out with injury,” Chiellini told Sky Sport Italia.
“Spalletti too has reached a phase of his career where he proved himself at the top level, he has something special and this love for the Nazionale, so we hope he can create something extraordinary in this month spent together.
“I am curious and excited to see them, I will cheer them on along with all of Italy.”
Chiellini welcomes new generation for Italy
Jorginho remains in midfield and Gianluigi Donnarumma has gained a few years, but there are a lot of new faces on show.
“These lads earned experience in the Champions League, like Alessandro Bastoni, and being at the Euros certainly helped him. Nicolò Barella is admired at international level, Jorginho returned well too.
“We have the best goalkeeper in the world. Italy are so fortunate to have gone from Dino Zoff to Gigi Buffon to Donnarumma. I think he can be an important figure for this Nazionale, but we shouldn’t put too much responsibility on his shoulders either.”
Buffon, who is a member of Spalletti’s Italy staff, said that it suits Italy to be underestimated going into EURO 2024, where their group includes Spain, Croatia and Albania.
Chiellini has a similar approach to the competition in Germany when asked to list his favourites to lift the trophy.
“Not in that order, England, France and Portugal, because I think those teams have something extra. Germany are playing at home, Spain are an important team even without the class of players they had a few years ago.
“I like to put Italy a step below the others, because I know that from the Round of 16 onwards, nobody will want to face us.”
Italy must win this euro 2024