Daniel Maldini and Alessandro Romano, yes, but Sebastiano Esposito, no. These are Roberto Mancini's selections for tonight's Italy-Belgium Nations League match (8:45 PM), given that UEFA regulations stipulate a maximum of twenty-three players can be on the squad list, and the Azzurri's squad consists of thirty-four. Consequently, the new/former coach has had to make some cuts, including the former Cagliari striker, who moved to Sassuolo after a stormy summer .
Romano, on the other hand, is moving towards his debut, following the issue surrounding his nationality switch from Switzerland to Italy : the Cagliari midfielder is among the likely starters against Belgium and – if so – would become the twenty-third Rossoblu player. He could immediately move up to twenty-four if Maldini were to play, likely during the match, with the latter returning to the national team a year after his last appearance.
This is the list of players called up by Mancini for Italy-Belgium, with their shirt numbers : those excluded are goalkeeper Massimo Pessina, defenders Alessandro Bastoni (serving a suspension for his sending off against Bosnia), Daniele Ghilardi, Eddy Kouadio and Matteo Ruggeri, midfielders Nicolò Fagioli and Samuele Ricci and – with Esposito – forwards Samuele Inácio, Antonio Vergara and Nicolò Zaniolo.
Goalkeepers: 12 Marco Carnesecchi (Atalanta), 1 Gianluigi Donnarumma (Manchester City), 14 Guglielmo Vicario (Juventus);
Defenders: 3 Honest Ahanor (Crystal Palace), 5 Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal), 6 Diego Coppola (Paris FC), 22 Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), 2 Michael Kayode (Brentford), 23 Gianluca Mancini (Roma), 19 Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta);
Midfielders: 18 Nicolò Barella (Inter), 15 Issa Doumbia (Sporting CP), 16 Davide Frattesi (Lazio), 13 Rolando Mandragora (Torino), 4 Alessandro Romano (Cagliari), 8 Sandro Tonali (Tottenham), 17 Mohamed Alì Zoma (Nuremberg);
Forwards: 21 Nicolò Cambiaghi (Bologna), 7 Francesco Pio Esposito (Inter), 9 Moise Kean (Como), 20 Daniel Maldini (Cagliari), 10 Giacomo Raspadori (Atalanta), 11 Gianluca Scamacca (Atalanta).