Continuing to experiment ahead of the Euros and expanding the pool of players who could be called up. The Under-21 training camp has begun, and these are the two objectives as the team prepare to face Germany at the Stadio Del Conero in Ancona at 17:30 CET on Saturday 19 November. The Azzurrini will train in San Mauro Pascoli until Thursday before departing to the Marche region. Compared to the squad that was named for the friendlies against England and Japan, Scalvini, Parisi, Miretti and Fagioli won’t be involved this time around: they’ve all been called up by Roberto Mancini for the senior side’s games against Albania and Austria. With Lovato and Udogie already ruled out and not in the squad, Nicolato now has to make do without Andrea Cambiaso (Bologna) and Pietro Pellegri (Torino). Hellas Verona midfielder Filippo Terracciano has received his first U21 call-up.

“Right now, consolidating is very difficult,” said the Head Coach during his first press conference of the week. “We’re finding it hard to plan: in addition to the injuries, we have to think about the needs of the senior side. We’re in an experimental phase but only have three matches before the European Championship: the upcoming one against Germany, which, thankfully, we have five days to prepare for, and two in March. We have to make the most them to assess and add to the understanding of more players, also because we’re in a situation where we don’t have a huge amount of players to choose from. Our primary objective is to try to expand the pool.”

Since Nicolato has been in charge of the U21s, 16 players have made their debuts for the senior side. “That’s a lot, and it’s something that makes us proud. Credit goes to all those who have put in the hard work in the past few years,” continued the Head Coach. “For us, it’s a real source of pride when the lads progress to the senior setup; it’s the main aim. We’ve got a really young side; more than half of the lads will be able to play with us in the next two years. Despite the impact this has in terms of the degree to which we can compete, we try to do our best with the lads we have available. We’ve qualified for the Euros again and reached the quarter-finals in the last edition. To really compete at a high level, however, something more is needed, and I want to fight for something important. We deserve this, and it’s a sentiment shared by Mancini and the whole Federation.”

In addition to the aforementioned Terracciano, there are a further three new faces in the U21 camp: Cesare Casadei, Franco Tongya and Cristian Volpato. “We need to expand the pool, which means giving opportunities to new players,” said Nicolato. “In the past, we’ve come across lads who we didn’t expect to be so good and ready.”

After the friendly against Germany, the Azzurrini will play another two fixtures in March before taking on Norway, Switzerland and France in the group stage of the European Championship in Cluj, Romania. “It’ll be vital for our players to get playing time for their clubs. Luckily, they’ve been featuring more and more in the past few weeks. I hope this trend doesn’t stop, also because playing more minutes helps with performance levels when games take place in quick succession.”

Squad list
Goalkeepers: Elia Caprile (Bari), Marco Carnesecchi (Cremonese), Stefano Turati (Frosinone);
Defenders: Raoul Bellanova (Inter), Riccardo Calafiori (Basilea), Giorgio Cittadini (Modena), Caleb Okoli (Atalanta), Lorenzo Pirola (Salernitana), Giacomo Quagliata (Cremonese), Matteo Ruggeri (Atalanta), Mattia Viti (Nizza);
Midfielders: Edoardo Bove (Roma), Cesare Casadei (Chelsea), Salvatore Esposito (Spal), Filippo Ranocchia (Monza), Nicolò Rovella (Monza), Filippo Terracciano (Verona), Franco Tongya (Odense);
Forwards: Nicolò Cambiaghi (Empoli), Matteo Cancellieri (Lazio), Lorenzo Colombo (Lecce), Lorenzo Lucca (Ajax), Emanuel Vignato (Bologna), Cristian Volpato (Roma)