The Italians are there and are waiting anxiously but Italy is also done. Luciano Spalletti has decided the eleven who will start the match tonight in Dortmund in the Euro2024 debut match against Albania. In the official conference the coach did not go unbalanced but his final choices were revealed also by the Rai journalist Antinelli during “European Nights” on Rai1.
Spalletti’s private chat
Connecting from Germany, Antinelli revealed that he knew what Luciano Spalletti wrote in his private chat on Watsapp regarding the training. The first surprise is the presence of Calafiori from the 1st minute. The Bologna defender, an eye of Thiago Motta who also wants him at Juventus, was preferred to Mancini and Buongiorno and will be part of the defense – which will be four in the non-possession phase and three in the setting phase – with Bastoni. His left-footedness and his ability to get in (with and without the ball) could be decisive to undermine Sylvinho’s rearguard and it is no coincidence that yesterday Spalletti praised the player’s qualities.
Barella makes it and plays from 1′
The good news is the recovery of Barella who, after having carried out all his work with the team for the second day in a row, was tested with the starters. The injury to the right rectus femoris suffered in Coverciano is part of the past. He will be the one to play in the middle paired with Jorginho. In front of Scamacca there will be Chiesa, Frattesi and Pellegrini. The team will be completed by the wingers Di Lorenzo, favored over Bellanova and Cambiaso, and Dimarco. The Neapolitan and the Inter player will take turns rising in the offensive phase.
Spalletti’s secret agenda
As he already did in the clubs, especially in Naples but also before that in Roma and Inter, yesterday too in his statements to the media Spalletti resorted to hyperbole, quotations, mottos and some somewhat rhetorical phrases (“we are giants, we are heroes”) but there is nothing improvised in the words of the Certaldo coach. The secret is in an agenda that he keeps and fills with phrases to use in conferences, taken from books old and new, classic and evergreen. This was also confirmed by Lele Adani who on “Notti Europee” confessed to having looked into one of the coach’s diaries, finding all the quotes which were then reported to the journalists: “But it was the Napoli one and it was over, now he will have others” .
