When Roberto Mancini announced his provisionary squad for the Nations League Final-Four, the list included four Juventus players.
On Tuesday, the Italy manager trimmed down the squad to 23 men. For their part, Bianconeri stars Leonardo Bonucci and Federico Chiesa made the cut.
The 36-year-old defender inherited the captain’s armband following Giorgio Chiellini’s international retirement. As for Chiesa, he’s gradually regaining his best form following a devastating ACL injury, but he remains a key player for the Azzurri.
On the other hand, Manuel Locatelli and Federico Gatti have been dropped from the final squad so they can return home and begin their summer vacation.
Italy will take on Spain on Thursday the 16th of June in the semi-final. If the Azzurri prevail, they will meet the winner between Croatia and the Netherlands (the host nation).
On the contrary, a defeat would see the Italians playing for the third spot against the loser from the other semi-final.
Here is the full 23-man squad as posted by Italy’s official Twitter account:
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint Germain), Alex Meret (Napoli), Guglielmo Vicario (Empoli)
Defenders: Francesco Acerbi (Inter), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Matteo Darmian (Inter), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Leonardo Spinazzola (Roma), Rafael Toloi (Atalanta)
Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Davide Frattesi (Sassuolo), Jorginho (Arsenal), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain), Nicolò Zaniolo (Galatasaray)
Forwards: Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Wilfried Gnonto (Leeds), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Giacomo Raspadori (Napoli), Mateo Retegui (Tigre)
SQUADLIST 📋
Mancini announces his squad of 2️⃣3️⃣ for the upcoming #NationsLeague Finals 🏆🇮🇹#Azzurri #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/rCprPdR1wq
— Italy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri_En) June 6, 2023
Hopefully this is so that Bonucci can say goodbye to the nationale while providing some experience to the nationale. Would much rather see Gatti over Toloi – wtf. Locatelli dropped in favour of Cristante – strange, but it is a friendly cup after all. Hopefully Mancio have learned and won`t play Jorginho and Veratti together. The whole defense are 3 man defence players while there are only two players who could play as attacking wingers. Expecting 3-5-2 which is the right timing for this system.