At the deadline communicated by UEFA, midnight on Monday, national coach Roberto Mancini made official his squad of 23 players who will take part in the Nations League Finals: Italy, in their second participation in a row in the tournament, will face Spain in the semi-finals (Thursday 15 June in Enschede), in search of revenge after the defeat at San Siro in 2021 and above all a ticket to the final (Sunday 18 in Rotterdam).

In terms of the group that last night reached the Forte Village in Santa Margherita in Pula (Cagliari), the location of the pre-retreat open to their respective families, Mancini decided to give space to the five Inter players involved in Saturday's Champions League final against Manchester City in Istanbul: defenders Acerbi, Bastoni, Darmian and Dimarco, as well as Barella among the midfielders. So, after the withdrawals of Pessina and Berardi, who returned home yesterday afternoon because they were injured, the coach chose to look past Baschirotto, Buongiorno, Florenzi, Gatti, Locatelli and Zaccagni, who will remain with the group these days anyway, and they will return to their respective locations at the end of the practice match against Cagliari Primavera (Friday morning). Then the group of 23 will come together on Sunday afternoon: meeting at the CTF of Coverciano, to fly to the Netherlands on Wednesday, destination Enschede.

NATIONS LEAGUE FINALS SQUAD

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);

Attackers: Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Wilfried Gnonto (Leeds), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Giacomo Raspadori (Napoli), Mateo Retegui (Tigre).