Rome (AFP)
Roberto Mancini, coach of Italy, the European champion, confirmed that the national team wants to successfully launch its campaign at the start of the 2024 European Cup qualifiers once morest England, in order to commemorate the former international striker Gianluca Vialli, who died in early January.
Vialli, a former colleague of Mancini in Sampdoria and a member of the team that won the European title in July 2021 once morest England in particular at the famous Wembley Stadium, died on January 6, at the age of 58, from pancreatic cancer.
“I talked regarding it with the players,” Mancini said during the press conference held at the National Center in Coverciano on the first day of the national team’s assembly. “For us it will be important to remember him, as if he was with us.”
The coach, who was crowned champion of the Italian League with Sampdoria, accompanied by Vialli in 1991, added: “He had a special position, and it is not easy for us. We must try to perform well for him as well.”
In the European champions’ first match since the departure of Vialli, who has held the position of head of the Italian delegation since November 2019, the players will wear special shirts on which (from the inside) a memorial message dedicated to the former international striker will be written.
For its part, the Italian Football Federation said that, in addition, Vialli will be honored before the match once morest England at Diego Maradona’s stadium in Naples.
The Italian national team, which failed to qualify for the World Cups Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, will meet next Sunday with Malta, which is considered the weakest in Group C, which also includes Ukraine and North Macedonia, which prevented Mancini’s men from reaching the finals of the last World Cup.
The federation also announced the absence of Juventus winger Federico Chiesa and Inter defender Federico Dimarco, due to their injury in the match that brought the two teams together (Juventus won 1-0) in the league competitions on Sunday.
Keiza (25 years old) came out at the end of the match, less than 20 minutes following he entered the stadium, complaining regarding his right knee. And his club announced that the tests conducted on Monday did not show any rupture, but the player must take a rest before the federation formalizes his absence.
On the other hand, DiMarco (25 years old) came out early in the second half due to a thigh injury.
And he will replace the Inter defender on the list, West Ham player Emerson Palmieri, while the federation has not announced any replacement for Keiza.
Ivan Providel (Lazio), one of the four goalkeepers called up by Mancini, is also absent, to be replaced by Cremonese goalkeeper Marco Karnicki.