Roberto Mancini named his 23-man squad for the Nations League, starting against Spain on October 6, including Lorenzo Pellegrini, Giorgio Chiellini and Marco Verratti.
The Azzurri won UEFA EURO 2020, beating England on penalties at Wembley Stadium in July.
It is roughly the same squad that lifted that trophy, missing injured Leonardo Spinazzola, Alessandro Florenzi, Andrea Belotti and Gaetano Castrovilli.
It’s an opportunity for Roma midfielder Pellegrini, who had been forced to pull out of the European Championship through injury, but has now fully recovered.
Italy will face Spain in the Nations League semi-final at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milan on October 6.
The winners of that match will then play the Final against either France or Belgium, while the losers go into the third place final.
Both those games are on Sunday October 10.
Italy beat Spain on penalties in the EURO 2020 semi-final.
Italy squad for Nations League
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint Germain), Alex Meret (Napoli), Salvatore Sirigu (Genoa)
Defenders: Francesco Acerbi (Lazio), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Emerson Palmieri (Lyon), Rafael Toloi (Atalanta)
Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Jorginho (Chelsea), Manuel Locatelli (Juventus), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Matteo Pessina (Atalanta), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain)
Forwards: Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo), Federico Bernardeschi (Juventus), Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli), Giacomo Raspadori (Sassuolo).
#Nazionale 🇮🇹
📋 I 23 #Azzurri convocati dal Ct #Mancini per la semifinale di #NationsLeague contro la #Spagna 🇪🇸
I dettagli 👉🏻 https://t.co/pZc8WBKqRT#VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/YRwNZAFoaE
— Nazionale Italiana ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri) September 30, 2021
Kean?
Should’ve include Kean, Destro and Zaniolo
Great choices for the most part.
In defence, I wonder what Calabria from Milan must do to earn a shot at right back for us? Even with Florenzi out he stills doesn’t even make the bench. I’m concerned there won’t be sufficient cover for Di Lorenzo if he is injured or not playing well. I suppose Toloi would be his replacement?
The midfield looks solid with Pellegrini in there, as he has been Roma‘s best player this year. I really liked Sensi but he has been injured too often, so he deserves to cede his spot to Pellegrini.
I like his forward selections. Zaniolo is a beast but he hasn’t fully reached his best form after two years away through injury, and his gestures to the Lazio fans last weekend wouldn’t have helped his cause. I’m not sold on Raspadori yet; I would’ve preferred Kean. Kean may still get a call, however, as Immobile seemed to have tweaked something in his European game today and asked to be subbed off early.
My starting 11:
Chiesa———–Insigne————Berardi
Verratti———-Jorginho————Barrella
Emerson—Chiellini—Bonucci–Di Lorenzo
—————–Donnarumma———————-
Mancini needs to not fall into a trap of being redundant.
Raspadori is a not a world class player and I’m perplexed and the amount of praise he gets. It’s like he has a good marketing team or something lol
Looks like we just have accept the useless Immobile. What Mancini doesn’t realize is that Ciro is actually getting worse each time he puts the blue jersey on because the pressure of failing each time he is out there is making it unbearable
Toloi….I don’t get it. It’s like every time Mancini has put him in to close a game out Italy concedes. It’s not his fault but cmon now.
I still wonder what Mancini saw in Raspadori,he’s been over hyped for nothing and the constant overlook or Calabria. It’s like he hates Milan players
raspadori has done so little…
he thinks highly of himself
and yet i just see an average footballer. Why is he always selected?
Mancio is doing a sterling job. Perhaps he could of experimented a little with this tournament but is sticking with his tried and trusted European Champs. …. nothing wrong with that. The players he would most likely bring in are not fully fit (Zaniolo, Sensi ) ….. Kean? Not sure what his best position tbh.
Zaniolo over Bernadeschi any day, but I can see why Bernadeschi is still there, he has a good dynamic within the group, but he has to step aside soon for the Roma man.
The Immobile one again? Give it up, he is terrible.
On a side note, why are we playing this stupid tournament? Who cares?
I am happy that Raspa has been picked. He is young, fast and gives 100% and is also studying. To me this means he has a good head on his shoulders. Reason for Kean not being picked in the Summer was he did not mingle with the others which means he doesn’t have sense of the group. Zaniolo is very similar to Kean. Both of them did not act well with the U21 so until they do not change, then sorry Roberto will not call them. To be fair to Zaniolo, he is not yet 100%. It will take time so he could be a good prospect in the near future. Sensi is a very good player but is often injured. Should have never left Sassuolo as he will not be first choice with Inter and also his attitude with Italy just before Lithuania game was unprofessional to say the least. Yes, Mancio could have experimented but he wants to keep the record going. As for the tournament, well you do win a trophy and if it was that bad, then why are probably the best 4 sides in Europe there? I believe we should try our best to win this trophy so Forza Italia.
Forza Italia
Awesome midfield. You could replace the 3 starter’s + it’d still be as strong, but with slightly different qualities. Defence looks solid. Only ? is will there be enough firepower upfront? Chiesa can probably do it all himself at this point tbf, but it’s a toss up for me between Kean/Raspa, they both offer a direct goal threat, maybe Kean a tad more, but they’re both fast, nimble players who can link-up play or run in behind. Toloi fits this system well. He can play in the center or move on the right + then move up to join the attack like at Atalanta. I’m sure that later on, Calabria, Zaniolo + Scammaca etc will get their chance.
Kean should not ever be mentioned not sure why all these comments keep mentioning him. He scored 2 lucky goals with lithuania ranked 137 in world and all of sudden he is a star. There are so many players better then him like scammacca, zaniolo, caputo, cutrone, petagna, pellegri, etc. cmon kean is clumsy and cannot run with ball in and out of defenses. Another player should be considered is politano.
Toloi should be replaced by calabria or even darmian.
Where is il faraone
Italian all the way – are you serious? Petagna and Caputo over Kean?