Three things spotted in first Italy training before France and Belgium games

FIGC President Gabriele Gravina spoke to Luciano Spalletti and Gigi Buffon before Italy’s training session on Monday, but just eight players were involved.

Football Italia was among the accredited media at Coverciano on Monday when Spalletti held his first press conference in the November break.

The Azzurri’s training session started only a few minutes later, but most players remained in the gym as they had played with their clubs on Sunday.

Below are the three things we spotted at Coverciano today.

Gravina

During the players’ warm-up, the FIGC President was spotted talking to Spalletti and Italy Delegation Chief Gigi Buffon on the pitch. Other federation members joined the conversation while Spalletti’s assistants monitored the players’ preparation for training. The Azzurri coach then joined his staff members while Buffon watched the training session from the sidelines.

Three extra players

Three players from the Fiorentina youth sector, including one goalkeeper, joined Italy players today. The group was initially split into two for drills on high pressing and ball possession on a reduced pitch. Andrea Cambiaso, Davide Frattesi, Federico Gatti and Guglielmo Vicario were on one side against Sandro Tonali, Nicolò Savona, Giacomo Raspadori and Caleb Okoli. Each team welcomed a Fiorentina youth player, while another was a ‘jolly’ who could receive the ball from any of the two teams.

Attacking moves

The final part of the training session saw the Azzurri try some attacking moves. Centre-backs Gatti and Okoli received the ball and had to reach full-backs with cross-field passes. Once the ball was on the wings, central midfielders and Raspadori, the only striker, linked up inside the box, trying to score against the young Fiorentina keeper.

Italy will train again on Tuesday and Wednesday. On that day, they’ll travel to Belgium in the afternoon of the eve of an away Nations League game against Belgium.