Italy are heading to Sofia where, tomorrow at 20:45 CET, they take on Bulgaria on matchday 2 of qualification for Qatar 2022. This morning, Giorgio Chiellini, Domenico Berardi and Francesco Caputo all left the group. The Juventus defender and the two Sassuolo forwards are unavailable for the upcoming games against Bulgaria and Lithuania and will return to their clubs. This comes after the departures of Bryan Cristante and Moise Kean.

Tomorrow in Sofia, the Azzurri will try to build on their win against Northern Ireland and extend their unbeaten run to 24 games. In order to reach this objective, a slight dark omen will have to be overcome; in six games played in Bulgaria, the Azzurri have never won (four draws and two defeats). However, the overall record between Italy and Bulgaria favours the Azzurri (ten wins, seven draws and two defeats), with the most recent fixture – in Palermo on 6 September 2015 – being decided by a Daniele De Rossi penalty.

Squad list

Goalkeepers: Alessio Cragno (Cagliari), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan), Alex Meret (Napoli), Salvatore Sirigu (Torino);
Defenders: Francesco Acerbi (Lazio), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Cristiano Biraghi (Fiorentina), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Emerson Palmieri (Chelsea), Gian Marco Ferrari (Sassuolo), Alessandro Florenzi (Paris Saint-Germain), Manuel Lazzari (Lazio), Gianluca Mancini (Roma), Leonardo Spinazzola (Roma), Rafael Toloi (Atalanta);
Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Gaetano Castrovilli (Fiorentina), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Manuel Locatelli (Sassuolo), Rolando Mandragora (Torino), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Matteo Pessina (Atalanta), Matteo Ricci (Spezia), Stefano Sensi (Inter), Roberto Soriano (Bologna), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint-Germain);
Forwards: Andrea Belotti (Torino), Federico Bernardeschi (Juventus), Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Stephan El Shaarawy (Roma), Vincenzo Grifo (Freiburg), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli).

Schedule:

Saturday 27 March
 10:30 – Departure from Parma to Sofia
 11:00 – Press conference – Bulgaria (Boyana National Football Center)
 11:30 – Training – Bulgaria (first 15 minutes open to the press) (Boyana National Football Center)
 18:00 – Press conference – ITALY (Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia)
 18:30 – Training – ITALY (first 15 minutes open to the press) (Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia)
Sunday 28 March
 20:45 Bulgaria vs. ITALY (Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia). Post-match press conference
Monday 29 March
 11:30 – Training (behind closed doors)
Tuesday 30 March
 10:45 – Departure from Sofia to Vilnius
 16:30 – Press conference – Lithuania (LFF Stadium, Vilnius)
 17:00 – Training – Lithuania (first 15 minutes open to the press) (LFF Stadium, Vilnius)
 17:30 – Press conference – ITALY (LFF Stadium, Vilnius)
 18:00 – Training – ITALY (first 15 minutes open to the press) (LFF Stadium, Vilnius)
Wednesday 31 March
 20:45 – Lithuania vs. ITALY (LFF Stadium, Vilnius). Post-match press conference followed by a return to respective clubs