The restart took place, now we have to keep going. After the wins in September against the World Cup Runners-Up France and then Israel, the National side met last night at Coverciano to begin their preparations for their first two home games of the season against Belgium (10 October, Stadio Olimpico, Rome) and again against Israel (14 October, Stadio 'Friuli' in Udinese). As group leaders, Italy have the chance to widen the gap on France and Belgium and set up their qualification for the quarter finals of the Nations League. 

To begin the camp, the Head Coach Luciano Spalletti gave his usual press conference, which precedes the first training sessions with a 23 man squad. Having lost Kean, due to a knock, the Head Coach has called up Udinese forward Lorenzo Lucca, who returns to National duty six months after his first call-up for the friendlies against Venezuela and Ecuador in the United States. 

RESTRICTED GROUP. "I only wanted to bring 23 players here - explains Spalletti - because I don't want to have two extra players who make 5-6 other players feel like they will stay out of the picture. Today, we have 15 players who will have a training session, the others will do some recovery work. And if we need to, tomorrow we will see if we need to bring anyone else in". In the next two games we need to confirm the good things we did in September: "At the beginning something needed to change, now the motto is to give continuity. It seems that our champions have understood that they need to experience these sort of days to be able to improve. After having done well in the games in September, Italy players have also done well with their club teams." The group is united, results help as always: "It makes me happy seeing, even this morning, the boys happy and excited to be together, happy to be here. We are going to play with confidence. We have to reproduce the consistency we showed in September, a team that knows how to work as a team. We have to be a strong group, in this side a lot of players know where the goal is, even the defenders". 

BELGIUM TEST. Domenico Tedesco's Belgium side represents a difficult test, and interesting ten against a good opponent, which, we have beaten in the last three meetings at EURO 2016, EURO 2020 and in the finals of the Nations League 2021: "Belgium is a tough test, a strong side and one of the best when it comes to building up play from the back. In attack, it's true they're missing Lukaku, but they have very fast players that find space and are very dangerous. Tedesco is a great manager, he has his own ideas and never stops influencing the team and introducing new ideas. He goes his own way and his side play a good brand of football, it'll be a tough piece of work" 

FRESH FACES. Always with an eye on the league, the Head Coach has, for the first time, called up the Juventus Goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio and the hero of the derby della Madonnina, Milanista Matteo Gabbia ("he knows how to command a defensive unit and always maintains a high defensive line"). Room for two youngsters with big hope, Daniel Maldini, who 22 years after the last appearance of his father Paolo, gives life to a new saga in the history of the Maldini family and the Azzurri, and the 20 year old Roma midfielder Niccolò Pisilli: "Daniel has played well, wonderfully and he has the physicality to be able to withstand blows in the challenge. He is strong and knows how to play with his back to the opposing defence. Sometimes he is absent from play. Seeing him play with continuity, I found an important degree of growth, we will see what effect he will have this week. Pisilli is a very good midfielder, De Rossi told me that he always scored in training matches. He has cadence, energy and knows how to do it all in both phases. I think he also deserved to be here with us". 

STADIUMS AND BUSY SCHEDULE. Now two current topics such as sporting grounds ("We must have proper stadiums, is a social issue. We have to be with the times. People want to go and watch football") and the full schedule, which for Spalletti can't be an alibi nor motivation for the number injuries at this point of the season: "More so than muscular tiredness there is a lot of pressure on the players. They don't play too much, even though they have to be ready to play lots". And in response to the injuries, from Gatti to Kean, in accordance with the society, the Head Coach preferred to leave those who weren't 100% at home: "For me, the National side is a constant emotion, but it also seems this way for the players. We have to believe the players, when they say they aren't well, it's because they aren't. We want everyone to be healthy". 

SQUAD LIST

Goalkeepers: Michele Di Gregorio (Juventus), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain), Guglielmo Vicario (Tottenham);
Defenders: Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Raoul Bellanova (Atalanta), Alessandro Buongiorno (Napoli), Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal), Andrea Cambiaso (Juventus), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Matteo Gabbia (Milan), Caleb Okoli (Leicester), Destiny Udogie (Tottenham);
Midfielders: Nicolò Fagioli (Juventus), Davide Frattesi (Inter), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Niccolò Pisilli (Roma), Samuele Ricci (Torino), Sandro Tonali (Newcastle);
Forwards: Lorenzo Lucca (Udinese), Daniel Maldini (Monza), Giacomo Raspadori (Napoli), Mateo Retegui (Atalanta).