Italy Without a Few Stars for Key World Cup Qualifiers | OneFootball

Italy were depleted to begin with ahead of the matches against Estonia and Israel, and lost two more men during the weekend. Gennaro Gattuso had very few decisions to make and had to select a significantly altered squad compared to the previous call-ups, Tuttomercatoweb relays.

The Azzurri won’t be able to lean on Alessandro Buongiorno, Gianluca Scamacca, Raoul Bellanova, Giovanni Leoni, Giorgio Scalvini, and Nicolò Rovella, who are all on the shelf. Two more went down after the initial roster was issued: Mattia Zaccagni, who might have suffered a thigh strain, and Matteo Politano, who limped off early in the second half versus Genoa.

The Italy coach made 11 changes relative to September, welcoming back Destiny Udogie, who was unavailable at the start of the season. Diego Coppola is replacing the Liverpool starlet. Bryan Cristante beat out Samuele Ricci, who hasn’t been a regular, to substitute for the Lazio midfielder.

Roberto Piccoli and Leonardo Spinazzola were called up after Zaccagni and Politano got hurt. As far as the strictly technical choices are concerned, Gattuso picked Matteo Gabbia over Federico Gatti, Hans Nicolussi Caviglia instead of Giovanni Fabbian, and Nicolò Cambiaghi for Daniel Maldini. The two Fiorentina men and the Bologna winger are the only rookies. Instead, the Milan, Roma, and Napoli veterans are returning after hiatuses.

Italy will face Estonia on October 11th away and Israel on October 14th in Udine. FIFA weighed excluding the former due to the war in Palestine, but it ultimately didn’t. The Azzurri need to run the table and hope Norway slip up to avoid the playoffs. Even beating the rivals in November wouldn’t be enough, given the vast disadvantage in goal difference.