There has been criticism that the Italy squad called by Luciano Spalletti at EURO 2024 was lacking in quality, but he was forced to do without several important names.
The Azzurri crashed out of the tournament in the Round of 16 following a 2-0 defeat to Switzerland, having beaten Albania 2-1, lost 1-0 to Spain and drew 1-1 with Croatia in the group phase.
Inevitably, the discussion around the shock exit has centred around the quality of the players at Spalletti’s disposal, with hand-wringing on why Italian football is not churning out talents.
However, this does not take into account the sheer number of players who would’ve been part of this group.
Italy talent forced to miss EURO 2024
First among them is midfielder Sandro Tonali, who is still out until next month following a ban for illegal gambling.
He would’ve started in the middle of the park rather than Nicolò Fagioli, who himself only returned to the field for Juventus in late May due to a similar ban.
In defence, Tottenham right-back Destiny Udogie was injured and Scudetto-winning Inter centre-back Francesco Acerbi was forced to withdraw from the pre-tournament training camp.
Giorgio Scalvini impressed so much with Atalanta and would’ve stepped in for Acerbi, but he too sustained a muscular injury in the last game of the season.
Domenico Berardi was a key figure in the Italy side that won the EURO 2020 trophy and has an excellent record at international level, scoring eight goals and providing three assists in 28 senior caps.
The Sassuolo icon will be out of action for months with a torn Achilles tendon.
Nicolò Zaniolo was probably a guaranteed starter too, until he was forced to pull out with a fractured metatarsal suffered with Aston Villa.
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