Roberto Mancini says Italy will aim to win against France in Paris on Friday, despite joking they need several of the hosts’ leading players to “get a nasty cold” to reduce the challenge.
The match at the Stade de France starts at 19.45 UK time (20.45 CEST) and will be Zinedine Zidane’s first home fixture in charge of the Bleus. France have won 1-0 in both of their opening matches under Zidane, against Turkiye and Belgium, while Italy lost 2-0 to Belgium before responding with a 4-1 victory away to Turkiye.
Mancini made extensive changes between those two games, leaving uncertainty over his starting XI.
“Facing Zidane will be a pleasure, but this isn’t a duel between us,” Mancini said.
“It is going to be a great game between France and Italy teams who are still trying to figure things out. Whatever happens, I feel that this match will be very useful for the process.”
France will be without Kylian Mbappe, who withdrew from the squad with a knee injury and returned to Real Madrid for treatment. Mancini still expects a demanding contest.
“France are more advanced in their process compared to us, but I think it will still be a high level challenge. It is exciting trying to beat players like Ousmane Dembele, Michael Olise and Desire Doue. We’d need all of them to get a nasty cold for France to drop down a few levels…
“Having said all that, we want to make a good impression here, we won’t just go out there trying to defend ourselves. The objective is always play to win.”
Italy left Samuele Inacio, Alessandro Romano, Honest Ahanor, Nicolo Cambiaghi, Diego Coppola, Daniele Ghilardi, Eddy Kouadio, Rolando Mandragora and Massimo Pessina behind at the Coverciano training camp.
Asked which version of his team represented the real Italy after such contrasting performances, Mancini said: “We mustn’t get too excited by a victory, nor too depressed by a defeat. The important thing is that against Turkiye we played good football. I want to say it wasn’t all bad with Belgium either, the second half showed some interesting moments.”
Michael Kayode scored on his debut at right-back and could retain his place ahead of Giovanni Di Lorenzo.
“Kayode is young, he has to keep going like this and improving. He’s physically strong and has attacking characteristics, but also knows how to defend,” Mancini said.
“Kean had a few fitness problems, that’s why he didn’t play on Monday. We’ll see if he can be there in Paris.”
Mancini also dismissed questions over the investigation into his alleged ‘sham’ Manchester City extra contract, which could lead to a tax investigation.
“It is nothing to do with me. There is a legal process that is on-going. I already explained I was not involved in this whole story.”
Italy delegation chief Diana Bianchedi tendered her resignation on Thursday. Mancini said: “We’re very sad about her decision, we told her that we’re already missing her.”
