Italy hit the ground running with their victory in Parma on Thursday evening against Northern Ireland and Mancini’s boys will be back at it tomorrow evening in Sofia (20:45 CET) facing off against Bulgaria in the second World Cup qualifiers clash for Qatar 2022. The Azzurri are hoping to extend their unbeaten run to 24 games. “Every match is difficult,” Mancini stated in the press conference on the eve of the game, “and they need to be approached with the utmost level of concentration. But we are here to win.”

But to reach their objective, the Azzurri need to dispel a little taboo: in the six games that they have played in Bulgaria, they have never won (with a total of four draws and two defeats); the balance is in favour of Italy, though, with regard to the matches they’ve played against Bulgaria (ten wins, seven draws and two defeats), with their last match played on 6 September 2015 in Palermo, decided by a successful penalty from Daniele De Rossi.

“Bulgaria,” the coach continued, “are going through a transition period, they have always had excellent players and they still do now. We will be up against a team that is different to Northern Ireland, perhaps less physical but a lot more technical. And it will also be on a very tough pitch.”

This morning, Giorgio Chiellini, Domenico Berardi and Francesco Caputo all left the retinue: the Juventus defender and the two Sassuolo attackers, unavailable for the upcoming games against Bulgaria and Lithuania, have returned to their respective clubs. That makes three more players, on top of Bryan Cristante and Moise Kean, who have gone back home in the past few days. And the coach is still figuring out who to select: “We will definitely be making some changes,” he explained, “we still don’t know who exactly yet because we’ll have to evaluate the situation in the next two training sessions. I don’t know whether we’ll make four or five changes, but we will be making some.”

Back on the topic of Thursday evening’s match at Parma, Mancini emphasised: “We are not a team that can control a match, we always have to attack. We had a great first half against Northern Ireland, in the second half we tried to control the game, but that’s not something that we can pull off and the boys understand this now. That said, I’m not suggesting that the second half was terrible. Let’s say that we did less well than we might have.”

 

 

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), 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);
Attackers: Andrea Belotti (Torino), Federico Bernardeschi (Juventus), Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Stephan El Shaarawy (Roma), Vincenzo Grifo (Freiburg), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli).

Schedule

(all times are EEST unless otherwise specified)

Saturday 27 March

10:30 CET – Departure from Parma to Sofia

18:00 – ITALY press conference (Vasil Levski Stadium, Sofia)

18:30 – ITALY training (first 15 minutes open to the press) (Vasil Levski Stadium, Sofia)

Sunday 28 March

21:45 – Bulgaria vs ITALY. (Vasil Levski stadium, Sofia) Followed by a press conference

Monday 29 March

11:30 – Training (Closed to the press)

Tuesday 30 March

10:45 – Departure from Sofia for Vilnius

16:30 – Lithuania press conference (LFF Stadium/Vilnius)

17:00 – Lithuania training (first 15 minutes open to the press) (LFF Stadium/Vilnius)

17:30 – ITALY press conference (LFF Stadium/Vilnius)

18:00 – ITALY training (first 15 minutes open to the press) (LFF Stadium/Vilnius)

Wednesday 31 March

21:45 – Lithuania vs ITALY (LFF Stadium/Vilnius). Followed by a press conference and return home.