The more practical and defined Italy from which Luciano Spalletti will restart for tonight’s challenge against France is the effect of the reflections that have matured in the coach’s mind during his very bad summer. The last disastrous European Championship on German soil, the fluid football that quickly turned into confused, forced the coach to review his beliefs. When you train the national team there is little time and then it is necessary to start from certainties that the players already have as a gift, from that three-man defense that is now the dominant thought in Serie A.
At the Parc des Princes, Italy will take to the field with a 3-5-2 formation, a formation used at the European Championship only against Croatia. The match that was regained in the 98th minute thanks to the Calafiori-Zaccagni duo is the one to take as a point of reference in view of tonight’s challenge: seven of the players who took to the field in Leipzig should also be protagonists this evening: Donnarumma, Di Lorenzo, Bastoni, Calafiori, Raspadori, Dimarco and Retegui.
On the contrary, if the comparison slips to the last match against Switzerland it is clear that the coach’s will is to put a stone on the disastrous eighth finals to start again with a completely different team. Not only for the formation. Sixty-eight days later, the only survivors will be Donnarumma, Di Lorenzo and Bastoni.
Here are the two formations compared
So Italy against Switzerland (4-3-3) – Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Mancini, Bastoni, Darmian; Cristante, Fagioli, Barella; Chiesa, Scamacca, El Shaarawy.
Tonight France-Italy, the probable formation (3-5-2) – Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Bastoni, Calafiori; Cambiaso, Frattesi, Ricci, Tonali, Dimarco; Raspadori, Retegui.