Italy national team CT Luciano Spalletti has officially revealed his 28-man Italy squad for the upcoming friendlies against Venezuela and Ecuador in March, including first call-ups for Torino wing-back Rauol Bellanova, Napoli’s Frosinone loanee Michael Folorunsho and Udinese striker Lorenzo Lucca.
Italy will travel to the United States for both of their fixtures against the South American sides. The game against Venezuela will be played in Inter Miami’s Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, and the Ecuador match is set to be played at the Red Bull Arena in New York.
Spalletti has named a booster 28-player squad for the trip to the States, which will be the penultimate set of friendlies the Azzurri play before the Euro 2024 tournament in Germany this summer.
Four goalkeepers have been given the nod, including current no.1 Gianluigi Donnarumma of Paris Saint Germain, Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario, Napoli’s Alex Meret and Atalanta’s Marco Carnesecchi.
The travelling cohort of full-backs and wing-backs will include Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Bellanova and Matteo Darmian on the right, Federico Dimarco and Destiny Udogie on the left, plus the versatile Andrea Cambiaso.
Francesco Acerbi, Alessandro Bastoni, Alessandro Buongiorno and Giorgio Scalvini are the selected centre-backs.
Folorunsho will join Nicolo Barella, Giacomo Bonaventura, Davide Frattesi, Jorginho, Manuel Locatelli and Lorenzo Pellegrini in the list of available Azzurri midfielders.
There is no room for Gianluca Scammacca in attack this time around, with Spalletti instead opting to select Federico Chiesa, Luuca, Riccardo Orsolini, Giacomo Raspadori, Mateo Retegui, Mattia Zaccagni and Nicolo Zaniolo instead.
Confirmed Italy national team squad
Goalkeepers: Donnarumma, Vicario, Meret, Carnesecchi.
Defenders: Di Lorenzo, Bellanova, Darmian, Acerbi, Bastoni, Buongiorno, Scalvini, Dimarco, Udogie, Cambiaso.
Midfielders: Barella, Bonaventura, Folorunsho, Frattesi, Jorginho, Locatelli, Pellegrini.
Forwards: Chiesa, Lucca, Orsolini, Raspadori, Retegui, Zaccagni, Zaniolo.
𝑵𝒂𝒛𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒆 🇮🇹
La lista dei 2️⃣8️⃣ convocati del Ct Luciano #Spalletti per le amichevoli negli Stati Uniti contro Venezuela ed Ecuador ⚽️💙#Azzurri #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/MDmH4k36ft
— Nazionale Italiana ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri) March 15, 2024
Not entirely impressed with the squad selection but we shall see.
@Liz…
ANY player willing to accept a call up to the Nazionale is, in FACT, Italian!
I can’t believe he still selects Zaniolo, who is a bench warmer for Aston Villa. Scamacca would be a much better choice than either Zaniolo or that giraffe Luuca.
No Mancini from Roma?
Centre backs will be our achilles heel. Acerbi too slow and the rest are too inexperienced. Also lacks some mongrel. Bastoni has not shone yet for Italy but must be persevered with. Gone are the days of the great defensive walls – Scirea/Gentile, Baresi/Costacurta, Cannavaro/Nesta, Chiellini/Bonucci. This squad’s strengths are at fullback and midfield.
It’s the forwards that are the worry – non of them are particularly outstanding. Even Chiesa is not the same as Euro 2020. However, Italy won last time (don’t think they will again) and their squad was not outstanding either.
The young Federico Gatti should be the center back! Acerbi is too old and too slow! I’m an Inter supporter!