National team coach Cesare Prandelli has made the Azzurri’s roster official, and communicated his list to UEFA.
Compared his previous version, the manager has left out Andrea Ranocchia and Mattia Destro. Doubts remain on the eligibility of Leonardo Bonucci, currently under investigation in the massive betting scandal surrounding Italian soccer this week.
The list also made the squad numbers for the final phase of the tournament official.
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Our weekly Italian Players Around the World segment is back!!
Inspired by Gazzetta dello Sport, here are the performances of all Italian soccer players operating in foreign European leagues (top divisions only). There are currently 34 Italians playing in first divisions abroad, and 15 of them stepped on the field this week-end.
The table below includes the team of the player, their opponents for this week, the time in minutes they played, their match contribution in goal(s) or assist(s), and the final score of the game.
Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport rated the Azzurri players at the end of their European adventure. Along with Gigi Buffon, positive scores were obtained by Chiellini and Grosso. All the strikers flunked the test, while some midfielders could have done better. The overall form however, was never great.
VIENNA (Austria), 24 June 2008 – The best? Gigi Buffon. Our European campaign won’t leave any great memories, but once again everyone’s talking about the Azzurri keeper. On Sunday evening at the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, there was a heated debate in the press over whose skills were better: the Azzurri captain’s or Iker Casillas‘. A duel right down to the last save, but even though the Real Madrid keeper managed a miracle on Camoranesi’s close-range effort and saved two of the Azzurri shots from the spot, the Juventus nº1 still seems have the edge as World’s best. When accounts are settled, Buffon remains the guiding thread of the Italian national side, and a certain starting point for the next World Cup in 2010.
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Gianluigi BUFFON | |
| Riddled with shots by Holland, not even Superman himself could have held out with no protection in front of him. Then came the Mutu penalty save, other fabulous interventions, and the hope he gave Italy fans by saving Guiza’s spot-kick during the shootout. What more could he have done? | ||
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Marco AMELIA | |
| An understudy, as he knew he would be. Impeccable in training, he provided Donadoni’s cement to unite the group. | ||
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Morgan DE SANCTIS | |
| Like Amelia he had no hopes of playing, but he kept his concentration up; a professional. | ||
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Gianluca ZAMBROTTA | |
| It wasn’t the Championship he was dreaming of. After an inadequate start against Holland on the left, the new AC Milan recruit became productive on the right side. Then there was that error against Romania which led to Mutu’s goal. Against Spain he couldn’t fully display his abilities. | ||
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Christian PANUCCI | |
| Four games out of four; the message to Spalletti is loud and clear. He gave his best playing in the centre. | ||
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Giorgio CHIELLINI | |
| Exceptional against Spain, he played a true veteran’s game. At the end of the Championship the youngster can be certain of his starting place in the national team. At the heart of the defence, he was relentless. A Cannavaro nº2. | ||
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Alessandro GAMBERINI | |
| He had no chance to show off his qualities; important in training at Casa Azzurri. | ||
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Andrea BARZAGLI | |
| Unlucky; a jinxed European Championship, like Cannavaro. Only one performance against Holland to his name, and one he will want to forget very soon. | ||
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Marco MATERAZZI | |
| Overwhelmed by the orange tide, he paid the price for a mediocre season with Inter, one which started too late. | ||
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Fabio GROSSO | |
| As ever, he tracked along the wing for the Azzurri. With him the national side relived moments of World Cup glory, and against Spain he once again showed a cool head for penalties. | ||
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Alberto AQUILANI | |
| He was thrown into the mix against Spain too hastily. Out of his element, almost lost, he couldn’t achieve his potential. | ||
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Andrea PIRLO | |
| Curse that stupid yellow card against France. A bad start against Holland, then continuous improvement. Without him, the team lost its direction and its decisive touch. Irreplaceable. | ||
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Gennaro GATTUSO | |
| Out of form (and it showed) but he never held back. The absence of his weight in midfield was felt in Vienna. | ||
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Daniele DE ROSSI | |
| Among the best players of the championship, though he had some problems against Spain. Unfortunate to miss his penalty, but the Roma player, who is always willing to take a spot kick, was suffering a muscle problem. | ||
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Mauro CAMORANESI | |
| Once he came on, the match against Spain took a new turn; perhaps if he’d played from the start things would have been different. Improved throughout the tournament, with a great goalscoring chance and a perfect penalty. | ||
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Simone PERROTTA | |
| Out of form, and against Spain it really showed. On the other hand there wasn’t much more he could do, lacking support from Toni and Cassano. | ||
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Massimo AMBROSINI | |
| His usual combative self in midfield, providing the spirit and pressure of the team, and creating depth of play. | ||
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Luca TONI | |
| The mystery of the tournament. Heavy and ungainly, he never achieved acceptable form. Though he did win the penalty against France and Abidal’s resulting red card, not enough by LucaBomber standards. | ||
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Marco BORRIELLO | |
| With Toni so out of sorts, he might have provided the added edge that was needed; a real shame. | ||
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Antonio DI NATALE | |
| Coming on against Spain, he revitalised play as only he knows how, making up for his poor start against the Dutch with several crosses and going close to goal. Shame about the penalty. | ||
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Fabio QUAGLIARELLA | |
| Only played a few minutes; he deserved more of a chance too. | ||
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Antonio CASSANO | |
| At the end of the day, another disappointment after much promise. Only the good performance against France remains to his credit, but in Vienna a more practical and less flashy Cassano was needed. | ||
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Alessandro DEL PIERO | |
| He had a great chance against Romania and messed it up. Absent. | ||
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Do you agree with Gazzetta’s ratings? Let us know in the comments.
I’ll get you started: I would give Camoranesi and Ambrosini 6.0 (not 6.5). Ambro did his job but made a few mistakes too many, and Camoranesi had a fairly okay game vs. Spain (and good penalty) but really not much else before that. In his defense, Donadoni was playing him as center attacking midfielder, not exactly his ideal position.
Finally, too generous on Di Natale (5.5 for me) since the Udinese striker was absent vs. Netherlands and seemed too psychologically affected by the boos vs. Spain. And too harsh on Cassano and Del Piero (an extra 0.5 for me), even though I will agree that a lot more was expected from them.
Have your say below.
In accordance to the UEFA-imposed May 28 deadline, Italian coach Roberto Donadoni has made his final roster selection for Euro 2008: the 23 players who will representing the Azzurri this Summer have been picked and as many expected, Fiorentina midfielder Riccardo Montolivo was the player discarded from the manager’s Pre-selection list.
“I was expecting it, I’m not too disappointed” said Montolivo. “The coach told me I had been excluded from the roster, and we’ll discuss the possibility of me staying among the group until Friday, and perhaps participating in the friendly vs. Belgium in Florence“. Donadoni himself however revealed, later in the day, that Montolivo would be leaving Coverciano. “The choice has been made yesterday evening. I gave [Montolivo] the choice of remaining with us, and he decided to leave tonight“.
It’s worth mentioning that Montolivo was, until the last minute, in serious contention with Quagliarella. It isn’t a coincidence that in the official team picture, both Montolivo and Quagliarella appear on the far ends of the second and bottom rows respectively (i.e. in easy “position” to be cut out). The same situation had taken place for Euro 2000 and Giuseppe Pancaro, who was then discarded at the last minute by then-coach Dino Zoff.
Also, many (myself included) had expected the Don to make his final choice between Montolivo and Aquilani (who was struggling with form & playing time in the last part of the season), but I guess Donadoni was reassured by the performances of the Roma player during practice, and reverted his final choice to Montolivo/Quagliarella (the Udinese striker also had a bleak end of the season, compared to his usual abilities).
In addition, the final shirt numbers have been submitted to UEFA. De Rossi has inherited Totti’s nº10, Del Piero will be keeping nº7, and Cassano wil take nº18 (formerly Pippo Inzaghi’s).
Here’s the full list with numbers:
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| Number | Goalkeepers: | Club: |
| Nº14 | Marco Amelia | Livorno |
| Nº1 | Gianluigi Buffon | Juventus |
| Nº17 | Morgan De Sanctis | Sevilla |
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| Defenders: | ||
| Nº6 | Andrea Barzagli | Palermo |
| Nº5 | Fabio Cannavaro | Real Madrid |
| Nº4 | Giorgio Chiellini | Juventus |
| Nº3 | Fabio Grosso | Lyon |
| Nº23 | Marco Materazzi | Inter |
| Nº2 | Christian Panucci | Roma |
| Nº19 | Gianluca Zambrotta | Barcelona |
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| Midfielders: | ||
| Nº13 | Massimo Ambrosini | Milan |
| Nº22 | Alberto Aquilani | Roma |
| Nº16 | Mauro Camoranesi | Juventus |
| Nº10 | Daniele De Rossi | Roma |
| Nº8 | Gennaro Gattuso | Milan |
| Nº20 | Simone Perrotta | Roma |
| Nº21 | Andrea Pirlo | Milan |
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| Forwards: | ||
| Nº12 | Marco Borriello | Genoa |
| Nº18 | Antonio Cassano | Sampdoria |
| Nº7 | Alessandro Del Piero | Juventus |
| Nº11 | Antonio Di Natale | Udinese |
| Nº15 | Fabio Quagliarella | Udinese |
| Nº9 | Luca Toni | Bayern Munich |
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