Italy: Roberto Mancini calls up 31 players—four new faces and two returning players

Ahead of the upcoming international break, the Italian national team, led by Roberto Mancini, will gather Sunday evening at the Coverciano training facility to prepare for the final round of the Nations League group stage. The brilliant victories in early fall against Turkey and the hard-fought draw in Saint-Denis against France have propelled Italy to second place in Group 1 of League A.

With seven points to its credit—three fewer than the French but one point ahead of the Belgians—the national team is set to face Les Bleus (on Thursday, November 12, at a nearly sold-out “Meazza”) and the Belgian national team (on Sunday, November 15, in Brussels). The minimum goal of remaining among the top seeds for the European qualifying draw, scheduled for December 6 in Belfast, is already secured.

Now, however, the bar has been raised: more points are needed to secure a spot in the top tier of the Nations League and avoid the nightmare of the playoffs, while even aiming to clinch one of the top two positions to advance to the quarterfinals. On a personal level, Roberto Mancini continues to climb the all-time rankings for the Azzurri coaching staff: having reached 65 appearances as head coach, he now trails only legends such as Vittorio Pozzo (95) and Enzo Bearzot (88).

Compared to the list of thirty-four players called up for the grueling schedule of the previous international window, this time the head coach has opted to trim the roster—albeit only slightly—bringing it down to thirty-one players. There are plenty of surprises: four new faces stand out, along with the returns of Nicolò Zaniolo and Marco Palestra. The fresh faces making their first-team debuts are the very young Riccardo Cassano and Mattia Liberali of Como, Simone Lontani of Parma, and Alphadjo Cisse of Milan.

For Cassano and Lontani, this will actually be a high-intensity training camp to get a taste of top-level soccer under the head coach’s watchful eye: their stay in Coverciano will, in fact, be limited to just a few days before they join the Under-18 and Under-19 squads, which are set to compete, respectively, in the World Cup in Qatar (kicking off on November 19) and in the European Championship qualifiers scheduled to take place in the Marche region.

Italy: The Roster for the Last Two Nations League Group Stage Matches

Goalkeepers: Marco Carnesecchi (Atalanta), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Manchester City), Guglielmo Vicario (Juventus);

Defenders: Honest Ahanor (Crystal Palace), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Daniele Ghilardi (Roma), Michael Kayode (Brentford), Gianluca Mancini (Roma), Marco Palestra (Chelsea), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta);

Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Riccardo Cassano (Como), Issa Doumbia (Sporting CP), Nicolò Fagioli (Fiorentina), Davide Frattesi (Lazio), Simone Lontani (Parma), Niccolò Pisilli (Roma), Samuele Ricci (Como), Alessandro Romano (Cagliari), Sandro Tonali (Tottenham);

Forwards: Nicolò Cambiaghi (Bologna), Alphadjo Cisse (Milan), Francesco Pio Esposito (Inter), Sebastiano Esposito (Sassuolo), Luca Koleosho (Paris FC), Mattia Liberali (Como), Gianluca Scamacca (Atalanta), Antonio Vergara (Napoli), Nicolò Zaniolo (Udinese).