The main question for Italy was about Mario Balotelli. After coach Roberto Mancini included him on the roster for a trial last January, many thought that former Manchester City player would be an option for the current Italian National Team. Italy are set to play on March 24 against North Macedonia in the first game of the UEFA qualifying playoffs for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. If the current champions of Europe manage to win this clash they will then face the winners of the other match between Turkey and Portugal. Balotelli is currently playing for Adana Demirspor in Turkey where he scored eleven goals in 24 matches, enough to lift the team into the seventh place in the Süper Lig. Prior to that, he was in the Italian second division with Monza and with his homegrown team Brescia. Neither stretch in in his home country was particularly positive, and they came after short stints at Nice and Marseille in France which were, themselves, short-lived.
After winning the Euros last summer, Italy struggled during qualifying in the fall, failing to secure a spot for the World Cup after shocking draws at home to Switzerland and away to Northern Ireland las November. That means they need to win these two matches or will miss their second consecutive World Cup.
Italy's World Cup qualifier squad
Goalkeepers: Alessio Cragno (Cagliari), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint Germain), Pierluigi Gollini (Tottenham), Salvatore Sirigu (Genoa);
Defenders: Francesco Acerbi (Lazio), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Cristiano Biraghi (Fiorentina), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Emerson Palmieri (Lione), Alessandro Florenzi (Milan), Luiz Felipe (Lazio), Gianluca Mancini (Roma);
Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Jorginho (Chelsea), Manuel Locatelli (Juventus), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Matteo Pessina (Atalanta), Stefano Sensi (Sampdoria), Sandro Tonali (Milan), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain);
Strikers: Andrea Belotti (Torino), Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli), Joao Pedro (Cagliari), Matteo Politano (Napoli), Giacomo Raspadori (Sassuolo), Gianluca Scamacca (Sassuolo) Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio), Nicolò Zaniolo (Roma);