Italy trained at Coverciano on Wednesday morning before leaving for the Netherlands, where they will face Spain in the Nations League semis tomorrow. Here are five things spotted during the Azzurri’s training session.
Football Italia was among the accredited media at Italy’s training centre on Wednesday morning when Mancini’s boys trained for the last time before flying to the Netherlands for the Nations League Final Four.
The training session was open to the media for the first 15 minutes, so here are the five things we spotted.
The mood was quite relaxed as several players, including Nicolò Zaniolo, Mateo Retegui and Ciro Immobile, waited for the beginning of the training session chatting on the touchline. Inter defender Alessandro Bastoni has fever, so he didn’t train this morning.
Work started with a brief speech from head coach Roberto Mancini who explained what he expected from the team this morning. Players initially worked with the ball.
While Gigio Donnarumma, Guglielmo Vicario and Alex Meret trained with goalkeeping coaches on a separate field, outfield players continued preparation on the main pitch, alternating possession exercises with stretching to warm up properly.
The Azzurri continued by working on third-man runs, working in groups of three. During this latest drill, Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci accidentally picked up a knock, apparently close to his eye socket, and immediately received medical attention, but he resumed training shortly after with no further issues.
The opening 15 minutes ended when Mancini split the group into two. His assistant Alberico Evani, a former Milan winger, remained on the pitch with attacking midfielders, wingers and strikers, while central midfielders and defenders continued to train on the other half of the field.
The Azzurri will fly to the Netherlands in the afternoon and Mancini will hold a pre-match press conference alongside one player at the FC Twente Stadion at 18:30 GMT+1.