Roberto Mancini has not called up ten players, including Nicolò Zaniolo, Andrea Belotti and Gianluca Scamacca for tonight’s clash against North Macedonia.
The Azzurri CT called 33 players for the World Cup play-offs, but not all of them will be available tonight. Mancini can bring a maximum of 12 players on the bench, so ten had to be snubbed from the squad list.
Pierluigi Gollini, Cristiano Biraghi, Leonardo Bonucci, Luiz Felipe, Manuel Locatelli, Stefano Sensi, Andrea Belotti, Gianluca Scamacca, Nicolò Zaniolo and Mattia Zaccagni won’t be available tonight, the FIGC announced.
Bonucci has yet to recover from a calf injury while Locatelli caught COVID last week, but is on his way to Coverciano after getting a negative swab test in the morning. Mancini seems to rely mostly on the group of players that won the Euros last summer as seven of the ten players left out of the squad (except for Belotti, Bonucci and Locatelli) were not part of that team.
According to Sky Sport Italia, Scamacca didn’t train with the Azzurri this morning due to a slight injury. The striker had felt pain in his thigh. The same problem forced him out of Sassuolo‘s starting XI against Spezia last weekend. Joao Pedro will be Ciro Immobile’s only alternative in attack tonight.
Italy squad list for North Macedonia clash
Goalkeepers: Alessio Cragno (Cagliari), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint Germain), Salvatore Sirigu (Genoa).
Defenders: Francesco Acerbi (Lazio), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Emerson Palmieri (Lione), Mattia De Sciglio (Juventus), Alessandro Florenzi (Milan), Gianluca Mancini (Roma);
Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Jorginho (Chelsea), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Matteo Pessina (Atalanta), Sandro Tonali (Milan), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain);
Strikers: Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli), Joao Pedro (Cagliari), Matteo Politano (Napoli), Giacomo Raspadori (Sassuolo).