Mancini Shakes Up the Italian National Team: 9 Players Cut from the Roster for the Matches Against France and Turkey

With just over 24 hours to go before the match against France, Roberto Mancini has finalized his roster for the trip to Paris. Ahead of the third Nations League match and the subsequent game on Monday in Bologna against Turkey, the head coach has decided to leave nine players at Coverciano.

They are Ahanor, Cambiaghi, Coppola, Ghilardi, Inacio, Kouadio, Mandragora, Pessina, and Romano. As explained by the FIGC, the nine players will not take part in the morning training session with the rest of the squad, but will instead hold a specialized session in the afternoon alongside part of the coaching staff and the performance team.

Compared to the match played in Turkey, however, Mancini now has Nicolò Barella and Gianluca Mancini back at his disposal, joined by Daniel Maldini, Zoma, and Ricci. This player rotation is also designed with the particularly intense schedule of this international break in mind.

The Azzurri’s next match is scheduled for Friday, October 2, at 8:45 p.m., when Italy will face France at the Stade de France. A match with strong symbolic significance, twenty years after the 2006 World Cup final in Berlin, which also brings Zinedine Zidane back into the Azzurri’s path. The former French champion has just begun his tenure as coach of Les Bleus and kicked off his new era with two 1-0 victories against Turkey and Belgium.