Udinese's Simone Pepe and Napoli pair Christian Maggio and Fabiano Santacroce have also been called up to the senior squad for the first time as Lippi was forced to ring the changes after Marco Materazzi, Nicola Legrottaglie, Marco Cassetti, Fabio Grosso, Andrea Pirlo, Vincenzo Iaquinta and Marco Borriello were all unavailable through injury.Fiorentina midfielder Riccardo Montolivo is also promoted from the Azzurrini, while Milan's Daniele Bonera and Palermo's Antonio Nocerino return.
Lippi has decided to leave out Alessandro Del Piero, Fabio Quagliarella and Andrea Barzagli, while Sampdoria star Antonio Cassano has been omitted once again.
The squad will gather for preparation and training at the Italian Football Federation's base in Coverciano on Monday night.
Italy top qualifying Group 8 with maximum points, two more than the Republic of Ireland, after victories against Cyprus and Georgia last month.
The Azzurri take on Bulgaria in Sofia on October 11 before playing host to Montenegro in Lecce four days later.
Italy squad
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Marco Amelia (Palermo), Morgan De Sanctis (Galatasaray).
Defenders: Daniele Bonera (Milan), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Andrea Dossena (Liverpool), Alessandro Gamberini (Fiorentina), Fabiano Santacroce (Napoli), Gianluca Zambrotta (Milan).
Midfielders: Alberto Aquilani (Roma), Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Gennaro Gattuso (Milan), Christian Maggio (Napoli), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Antonio Nocerino (Palermo), Simone Perrotta (Roma).
Forwards: Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), Simone Pepe (Udinese), Giuseppe Rossi (Villarreal), Luca Toni (Bayern Munich).
Source: Sporting Life
No comments:
Post a Comment