ROME, March 18 — Italy mentor Roberto Mancini included three uncapped gamers in a 30-man squad as the Euro 2020 champions search to kick off their qualifying marketing campaign for the 2024 tournament versus England and Malta later on this month.
Lecce goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone, Torino defender Alessandro Buongiorno and Atletico Tigre striker Mateo Retegui ended up all named in the national squad for the first time, bringing Mancini’s overall number of players known as up for Italy to 102.
“We’ve been next Retegui for a when, he’s been taking part in routinely in the Argentine league for two seasons. He has traits that we at present absence,” Mancini explained.
Mancini, even so, faces a headache when it comes to picking strikers as Ciro Motionless is out wounded when Napoli’s Giacomo Raspadori and Gianluca Scamacca of West Ham United have lacked actively playing time.
“Raspadori is an critical player for us but he doesn’t participate in a great deal. Scamacca is coming from an harm and doesn’t participate in a great deal either. The lads can increase only if they participate in.”Scamacca was bundled in the squad whilst Raspadori was still left out.
Italy will host England in Naples on Thursday and then travel to Malta on March 26.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Wladimiro Falcone, Alex Meret, Ivan Provedel.
Defenders: Francesco Acerbi, Leonardo Bonucci, Alessandro Buongiorno, Matteo Darmian, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Federico Dimarco, Alessio Romagnoli, Giorgio Scalvini, Leonardo Spinazzola, Rafael Toloi.
Midfielders: Nicolo Barella, Bryan Cristante, Davide Frattesi, Jorginho, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Matteo Pessina, Sandro Tonali, Marco Verratti.
Attackers: Domenico Berardi, Federico Chiesa, Wilfried Gnonto, Vincenzo Grifo, Simone Pafundi, Matteo Politano, Mateo Retegui, Gianluca Scamacca. — Reuters