Italy face their toughest assignment of Roberto Mancini’s second spell as head coach when they visit France in the Nations League on Friday.
The match at the Stade de France kicks off at 19:45 BST and will be shown live in the UK on Amazon Prime. Viewers in the USA can watch on Fox Sports 1 and fuboTV, while DAZN and fuboTV have coverage in Canada. The game is also available on beIN Sports 3 in Australia.
Mancini began his latest spell with a 2-0 home defeat by Belgium last Friday, but Italy responded with a 4-1 away win against Vincenzo Montella’s Turkey on Monday.
France have also won both of their matches during the past week, beating Turkey and France away from home by 1-0 scorelines. Friday’s match is Zinedine Zidane’s first home fixture at the Stade de France since he replaced Didier Deschamps as head coach over the summer.
Italy’s probable line-up
Reports before the match suggest Riccardo Calafiori and Nicolo Barella will return to Mancini’s starting XI.
Gianluigi Donnarumma, Michael Kayode, Giorgio Scalvini and Alessandro Bastoni are expected to retain their places in defence after the victory in Turkey. Calafiori is likely to replace Matteo Ruggeri at left-back.
Gianluca Mancini could come into the side in place of Scalvini at right centre-back, while there is also a slight possibility that Giovanni Di Lorenzo will be selected at right-back.
Barella is expected to return to the midfield three alongside Sandro Tonali and Nicolo Fagioli. Davide Frattesi is also pushing for a starting place after scoring in Bursa earlier this week.
There is less certainty over the forward line. Moise Kean had been expected to make his first start of the international break, but reports from Sky say his fitness must still be assessed. Pio Esposito is therefore more likely to keep his place as centre-forward.
Pio Esposito is expected to be joined in attack by his brother Sebastiano, with either Daniel Maldini or debutant Antonio Vergara on the right wing.
France are expected to line up in a 4-3-3 formation: Maignan; Kounde, Upamecano, Jacquet, Truffert; Cherki, Kone, Rabiot; Olise, Dembele, Doue.
Italy’s anticipated XI is: Donnarumma; Kayode, Scalvini, Bastoni, Calafiori; Barella, Tonali, Fagioli; Vergara, P. Esposito, S. Esposito.
Squad changes
Mancini initially selected 34 players for the extended September-October international break, but that number fell to 32 when Nicolo Zaniolo and Giacomo Raspadori left the camp without being replaced.
Nations League rules allow only 23 players in a matchday squad, meaning a further nine players were omitted from the trip to France: Massimo Pessina, Diego Coppola, Daniele Ghilardi, Honest Ahanor, Eddy Kouadio, Alessandro Romano, Rolando Mandragora, Nicolo Cambiaghi and Samuele Inacio.
Ahanor is no longer with the senior squad and will instead be available for Italy Under-21s in their important European Championship qualifier against Poland on Monday night.
The full Italy squad is:
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Marco Carnesecchi, Guglielmo Vicario.
Defenders: Michael Kayode, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Riccardo Calafiori, Alessandro Bastoni, Giorgio Scalvini, Gianluca Mancini, Matteo Ruggeri.
Midfielders: Samuele Ricci, Sandro Tonali, Nicolo Fagioli, Nicolo Barella, Issa Doumbia, Davide Frattesi.
Forwards: Pio Esposito, Moise Kean, Gianluca Scamacca, Mohamed Ali Zoma, Daniel Maldini, Sebastiano Esposito, Antonio Vergara.
Pre-match build-up, live coverage and reaction will be available on the Football Italia Liveblog.
