Luciano Spalletti tested out Arsenal midfielder Jorginho in the Italy starting XI, with an intriguing strike force of Domenico Berardi, Gianluca Scamacca and Federico Chiesa.
The Azzurri will host North Macedonia at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Friday evening, then face the showdown with Ukraine on neutral turf in Leverkusen next Monday.
Only the top two in the group go directly into EURO 2024, and England have already secured first place, while Italy would enter a play-off if finishing third.
There are numerous injury concerns to deal with, which grew with Manuel Locatelli, Davide Calabria, Rafael Toloi and Alex Meret leaving the camp.
Manuel Lazzari and Cristiano Biraghi were added to the squad, but the good news is that Andrea Cambiaso and Bryan Cristante are back in training.
Spalletti tested out his line-up today with Jorginho in midfield, despite the fact he was not even called up before by the coach, as he has been playing more regularly now for Arsenal.
Giovanni Di Lorenzo is suspended for the first match.
The interesting experiments are upfront, where former Sassuolo teammates Berardi and Scamacca are reunited, but rather than Giacomo Raspadori as the third member of the trident, it is Juventus man Chiesa.
Ciro Immobile has been left out of the squad due to injury problems at Lazio.
Moise Kean worked separately today and only had physiotherapy.
England deserve to be first, Italian club football clubs hardly play any Italians in their first team and its a real shame. Take AC Milan for example, recent scudetto winners, hardly any Italians in their first team, it’s no wonder the Italian national team is struggling.
Hmmm… Didn’t Italy beat England in the Euro Final? So much for the English they can keep first place but will never win anything.. HAHA!
england lost on penalty kicks not the game they beat us both times qualifying they are getting better we are getting worse
We played England twice in the Nations league since the Euros, winning one and drawing one. The game we tied 0-0, we should,’ve also won. This being said, England fully deserved both wins in our EURO qualifying group.
I must say, I struggle to understand the seedings for group draws. How is it possible for the finalists of the previous EURO to be drawn in the same qualifying group? It should never happen.