From Florenzi to Locatelli, up to Berardi, Bernardeschi and Pessina. Here’s how the coach relaunches the Azzurri
COVERCIANO (Florence). The countdown is minus 3. Italy for the Olimpico debut is ready and looking at the choices of the restart coach, Roberto Mancini, comes to call it the national team of “second chances”, the team of those who have been rescued with the sharp eye and expert hand of Roberto Mancini, of a group in which there is no shortage of players who have had to change clubs or even countries to relaunch. Some of them announce themselves among the holders of the inaugural challenge of the European Championship between Italy and Turkey, on Friday at 9 pm at the Olimpico in Rome.
Alessandro Florenzi, for example, will return to the stadium that saw him grow up and play as captain of Roma and will do so 500 days before the farewell to the Giallorossi team that had no more space for him. Manuel Locatelli also has a particular story: he exploded very young at Milan so as to be considered one of the cracks of Italian football, the 23-year-old midfielder then found himself on the sidelines: leaving the lights of San Siro he chose Sassuolo to relaunch himself and demonstrate his qualities. Mission accomplished: Locatelli is a candidate to compose the midfield trio with Barella and Jorginho on Friday. Remaining at the Emilian club, Domenico Berardi finally seems to have reached that indispensable maturity to shake off the label of “good but discontinuous” and hold on to a place in the sun: barring unforeseen events against Turkey, it will be the captain of Sassuolo and not Federico Chiesa in compose the trident with Immobile and Insigne.
And what about Leonardo Spinazzola? A career marked by many loans and some serious injuries, Juve (with whom he played only one season) never believed in it so in 2019 he sold him to Roma where the winger redeemed himself becoming one of Paulo Fonseca’s immovable and a fixed point in blue at the moment ousting Emerson Palmieri fresh from the Champions League won with Chelsea. Federico Bernardeschi can also enjoy his revenge: in Juventus he has always struggled to find space on a regular basis, nevertheless Mancini has never lost sight of him and, esteeming him for some time, he wanted him for this adventure, as did Matteo Pessina, the real rescued of this Italy European format. The initial cut from the list of 26, is now part of it in all respects after the forfeit of Stefano Sensi (who yesterday left the blue retreat in Coverciano) and has every intention not to miss this great opportunity.