Nicolò Fagioli makes his senior Juventus debut against SPAL this evening, but who is the player Andrea Pirlo is throwing in?
Juventus face Serie B side SPAL in a Coppa Italia quarter final clash at the Allianz Stadium this evening and Andrea Pirlo has rotated his squad quite heavily.
It kicks off at 19.45, and you can follow the game as it happens on the LIVEBLOG.
Nicolò Fagioli makes his senior Juventus debut against SPAL this evening, but who is the player Andrea Pirlo is throwing in?
Juventus face Serie B side SPAL in a Coppa Italia quarter final clash at the Allianz Stadium this evening and Andrea Pirlo has rotated his squad quite heavily.
It kicks off at 19.45, and you can follow the game as it happens on the LIVEBLOG.
The Juventus tactician has thrown in players Radu Dragusin and Nicolò Fagioli from the Under 23 team plus Gianluca Frabotta who was promoted to senior team last summer.
While Frabotta made his Juventus debut under Maurizio Sarri last season and has already 14 appearances with the Old Lady, Dragusin has only made his senior Juventus debut this season and has three appearances across all competitions so far in the current campaign.
The contract of the 18-year-old defender expires in the summer and Juventus are in talks to extend his stay at the club although, according to reports in Italy, RB Leipzig are keen on landing him as a free agent at the end of the season.
Nicolò Fagioli is also starting against SPAL and is set to play his first ever match with Juventus’ first team.
The 19-year-old is considered one of the most talented products of Juventus’ academy.
He joined the Old Lady from Cremonese in the summer of 2015, but the 19-year-old was born and raised in Piacenza, the hometown of Juventus’ CFO Fabio Paratici who scouted him when he was playing in the Youth Sector of the Biancorossi.
Fagioli has already joined the Juventus senior team several times during his career, but he had never managed to make his debut before this evening.
An attacking midfielder who can also play as a deep-lying playmaker, Fagioli scored 11 goals in 56 appearances with Juventus Primavera, two of them in the UEFA Youth League against Atletico Madrid and Lokomotiv Moscow last season.
When the Primavera season was suspended due to the pandemic, he was permanently promoted to the U23 squad where he scored one goal in 24 appearances.
Former Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri is a huge fan of Fagioli.
“We have Nicolò Fagioli, a guy born in 2001 who knows football and its tempo very well, it’s a pleasure to see him playing,” the six-time Serie A champion said in September 2018.
Alessandro Di Pardo is on the bench and could also make his debut in the second half.
A 21-year-old right-winger who can also play as a right-back, Di Pardo is a former SPAL player as he left the club in the summer of 2017 to join Juventus on loan.
The Old Lady made his move permanent in January 2018 for €2.1m.
Di Pardo has 24 appearances and one goal with Juventus’ U23 team with whom he won the Coppa Italia Serie C last season.
Pic credit: Instagram @nicofagioli