Italian national team coach Cesare Prandelli announced his initial 32-man list as he gets ready to participate in Euro2012.
The majority of the team is showing some important additions, but there is also a vision towards the future. In addition to the obvious choices. The spine of Juventus’ championship winning side wil definitely be looked at to solidify the Azzurri. It will also the addition of players such as Siena’s Mattia Destro as well as Pescara’s Marco Verratti are eye catchers. Verratti and Torino’s Angelo Ogbonna are the two young stars of Italian football that are the major contributors in helping their respective sides find themselves in the top two places in Serie B. Verratti got the best of Ogbonna this past week when Pescara defeated Torino 2-0 and took over the top spot in the league.
Ogbonna already had some action with the national team as he did play in Italy’s loss to the United States 1-0 in Genoa a few months ago.
Of course, the cuts will begin rather quickly for the Italians as they have to have the final list cut down to 23 by the end of this month as they wil have quite a difficult group to aim to get out of as they will debut against reigning champs Spain and then will face off against Croatia and Ireland in Group C.
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Morgan De Sanctis (Napoli), Salvatore Sirigu (Paris St. Germain-FRA), Emiliano Viviano
(Palermo)
Defenders: Ignazio Abate (Milan), Danilo Astori (Cagliari), Federico Balzaretti (Palermo), Andrea Barzagli (Juventus),
Salvatore Bocchetti (Rubin Kazan-RUS), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Domenico Criscito (Zenit
San Petersburg- RUS), Cristian Maggio (Napoli), Angelo Ogbonna (Torino), Andrea Ranocchia (Inter)
Midfielders: Luca Cigarini (Atalanta), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Alessandro Diamanti (Bologna),
Emanuele Giaccherini (Juventus), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Thiago Motta
(Paris St. Germain-FRA), Antonio Nocerino (Milan), Andra Pirlo (Juventus), Ezequiel Schelotto (Atalanta), Marco Verratti
(Pescara)
Forwards: Mario Balotelli (Manchester City-ENG), Fabio Borini (Roma), Antonio Cassano (Milan), Mattia Destro
(Siena), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Sebastian Giovinco (Parma)
