Italy’s complete transformation as Spalletti changes 8 starters after Euro exit

Luciano Spalletti is expected to transform the Italy line-up against France, changing eight starters from the defeat to Switzerland at EURO 2024.

Italy return to the pitch two months after a shameful elimination from the EURO 2024 Round of 16, visiting France at the Parc des Princes tonight.

The Azzurri CT has acknowledged his errors and said at a pre-match press conference on Friday that the match against Les Blues is the start of a new era for the Azzurri.

The Italy team for Nations League fixtures against France and Israel in September does not include eight players involved at EURO 2024.

Among them are the injured Gianluca Scamacca and Nicolò Barella and new Liverpool signing Federico Chiesa, who trained separately at Juventus for the whole summer while waiting for a transfer.

There will be even more changes tonight as Spalletti will permanently switch to a three-man defence and change eight starters from the defeat against Switzerland. Only Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Gigio Donnarumma and Alessandro Bastoni are expected to start again, while the rest of the team will change.

Italy’s complete transformation as Spalletti changes 8 starters after Euro exit

Riccardo Calafiori served a one-match ban against Switzerland at the Euros and will likely start with Bastoni and Di Lorenzo in central defence tonight.

After returning from a betting ban, Sandro Tonali will play his first international match since September 2023, joining Samuele Ricci and Davide Frattesi. Ricci and Tonali were not part of the Italy squad at EURO 2024, although the Torino midfielder had been included in the preliminary squad last summer.

Italy starting XI vs. Switzerland (4-4-2): Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Mancini, Bastoni, Darmian; Cristante, Fagioli, Barella; Chiesa, Scamacca, El Shaarawy.

Italy probable XI vs. France (3-5-2): Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Bastoni, Calafiori; Bellanova, Frattesi, Ricci, Tonali, Dimarco; Retegui, Raspadori