Antonio Conte is due to name his first Italy squad, and a possible line-up is starting to take shape.
The first international break of the season is almost upon us, and the Azzurri take to the field in a friendly against The Netherlands in Bari on September 4, opening their Euro 2016 Qualifying campaign five days later against Norway.
With this in mind, Calciomercato.com have put together a speculative 25-man squad.
The squad setup would be not unlike that of the 30-man squad Cesare Prandelli chose for the World Cup, with Parma’s in-form players of last season Antonio Cassano and Gabriel Paletta discarded in favour of those who are set to hit their peak in the coming seasons.
The full predicted squad is as follows:
GOALKEEPERS – Gianluigi Buffon, Salvatore Sirigu (plus one between Federico Marchetti and Mattia Perin).
DEFENDERS – Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Ranocchia, Davide Astori, Matteo Darmian, Mattia De Sciglio , Domenico Criscito (plus one between Manuel Pasqual and Ignazio Abate).
MIDFIELDERS – Andrea Pirlo, Daniele De Rossi, Marco Verratti, Alberto Aquilani, Antonio Candreva, Andrea Poli, Alessandro Florenzi (plus two between Marco Parolo, Emanuele Giaccherini, Romulo and Thiago Motta.)
FORWARDS – Ciro Immobile, Mario Balotelli, Mattia Destro, Alessio Cerci , Stephan El Shaarawy.
Antonio Conte officially names his first squad on Saturday, before taking on Group H which consists of Croatia, Norway, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Malta for a place at Euro 2016 in France.
