Cesare Prandelli has a big test coming up, when the Italian national team faces Germany in Dortmund on February 8th. His list of 23 called up players features some new faces, along with a few returning veterans. Yet the squad which has been called up is missing some important players who are injured. The star striker of the future, Mario Balotelli is still injured, along with Quagliarella, Pirlo, and Pepe, with Prandelli deciding not to call up Marchisio and Gilardino.

There are plenty of experienced players returning, among them is Gianluigi Buffon. Juve’s keeper is finally in a relatively positive state of fitness, but Prandelli’s call up highlights a sickly dependence on the keeper which needs to stop soon. While Buffon is a legendary goalkeeper, Prandelli can’t drag the 33 year-old to the 2012 European Championships, Italy needs a younger keeper. I’ve seen Sirigu (who has been called up) make some excellent saves for Palermo, and he’s probably my first choice to be Buffon’s heir.

Here’s the 23 players called up by Cesare Prandelli for the friendly against Germany:

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon, Salvatore Sirigu, Emiliano Viviano

Defenders: Davide Astori, Leonardo Bonucci, Mattia Cassani, Giorgio Chiellini, Domenico Criscito, Christian Maggio, Andrea Ranocchia

Midfielders: Alberto Aquilani, Daniele De Rossi, Sebastian Giovinco, Stefano Mauri, Riccardo Montolivo, Antonio Nocerino, Thiago Motta, Angelo Palombo

Forwards: Marco Borriello, Antonio Cassano, Alessandro Matri, Giampaolo Pazzini, Giuseppe Rossi

Something which hit me when I was looking at the teams which these players play for is that there are now three Inter Milan players in the squad! Somehow, the club notorious for its lack of Italians, has snuck in three players into the national team. I’m glad to see Ranocchia, Pazzini, and Thiago Motta in the team, because all three of them are relatively youthful and energetic.

I’m also glad to see Alessandro Matri being called up. The ex-Cagliari forward who recently joined Juventus in the January transfer window has been banging in the goals this season. Giovinco is also being given a chance after his re-emergence at Parma, and I’d really like to see this pair of newcomers succeed.

How do you think Italy will do against Germany in the friendly? Is this squad good enough? Share your predictions and comments below!

Juventus have been preparing for their Europa League qualifier which will be played against Shamrock Rovers with friendlies against Hamburg (0-0) and Lyon (2-1 for Juventus). Juventus will play the Irish club over two legs, and the team with the best results over the two legs will go through. The first leg will be played July 29^th in Ireland at the Tallaght Stadium, and the return leg will be played at the Braglia stadium of Modena. But first here’s what happened against Lyon, what went wrong, and what went right.

Juventus played with a 4-4-1-1 starting with Storari in goal, and a backline (right to left) of Motta, Legrottaglie, Chiellini, and De Ceglie. In front of the back line there was Martinez on the right wing, Lanzafame on the left wing, and Sissoko and Marchisio in the middle of the midfield. Delneri decided to start with Del Piero behind Amauri instead of Diego and Trezeguet who replaced the Italian attacking duo at the beginning of the second half.

Lyon went in front in the 22^nd minute thanks to Chiellini fouling Ishak in the penalty area, giving the French club a penalty for Storari to face. Ederson had little trouble with the penalty as he scored to put Lyon in front. But Lyon’s fortune took a change for the worse in the 26^th minute, Martinez was giving Cissokho trouble down Lyon’s left side, and Cissokho went in hard with the ball far away from the tackle. This resulted in Cissokho’s expulsion with a direct red card, leaving Lyon in 10 men ahead by a goal.

After the goal Juventus attacked more, Lanzafame pushed forward on the left wing, and he was able to filter through a pass for Amauri, and in the penalty box there was contact between the Brazilian/Italian and Lovren, earning Juventus a penalty. Del Piero took the penalty, scoring the equalizer for Juventus in the 38^th minute of the first half.

In the second half Juventus was solid, Motta was a wall on the right side as he also provided Martinez with support on the wing. The defense was compact and organized, and the midfield also began to click with Pepe and Diego combining for the winning goal. It was a triangle outside the box closed by Diego’s chip which is finished off by Pepe who scores the final goal of the 2-1 scoreline.

Diego was a dangerous presence for the Lyon defense, and the Brazilian’s creativity and technical skill are beginning to show as he gains more confidence with his team-mates. And as Diego and Trezeguet’s attacking partnership grows, Del Piero and Amauri’s doesn’t shine as brightly. It seems like Delneri has already chosen that it will be Diego and Trezeguet who will start against Shamrock Rovers, but Delneri would like more from the Brazilian. Here’s what the Juventus coach said regarding Diego’s performance,

“He’s doing very well, from him I expect performances like this, even if I would like more consistency. I’d definitely say that I’m very satisfied with everybody.”

Now there are no friendlies left before Juventus plays Shamrock Rovers on the 29^th of July, while Juve will be favored, they shouldn’t underestimate the Irish champions. It will be interesting to see whether Juventus will be able to defeat Shamrock Rovers, or whether they’ll have trouble in their first seasonal competition. What do you think? Share your thoughts below by commenting!

I always find summer friendlies interesting, you get to see how new players interact with their new teammates as you get a sneak peak to the next season. The first “big” friendly was played out recently between Juventus and Hamburg, all of the other friendlies are against teams representing regions with the score often ending up in double figures for the Serie A teams. Other than Juve we also saw Fiorentina, Catania, Bologna, Palermo, Cesena, Chievo, and Napoli play out friendlies.

Juve’s first big test would probably be a passing grade, it wasn’t a failure, but it wasn’t a great performance. The bianconeri started with a 4-4-1-1, Storari in goal with the Italain back line (from right to left) of Motta, Legrottaglie, Ferrero, and De Ceglie. The midfield was composed of Martinez on the right wing, Lanzafame on the left wing, and Sissoko and Ekdal in the middle of the park, supporting Diego who was acting as a second striker to Trezeguet.

Things didn’t start very well, early on Guerrero hit the post after having his shot deflected by Legrottaglie, but Juventus began to wake up after that creating a great chance for Martinez, who was signed from Catania. Martinez was one on one with Hamburg goalkeeper Rost, but he began to stumble as he passed the ball to Trezeguet who also stumbled, only to have the ball taken away from a defender. A certain goal wasted by a new signing, and a player trying to return to form, not a good sign.

After that miss, it was Storari’s turn to shine, the ex-AC Milan goalkeeper completed a number of great reaction saves against Guerrero in the first half, and later also against Petric. Hamburg hit the post again with the young striker Berg (a player to look out for, very similar to Ibrahimovic), but neither of the teams were able to score, and this friendly ended 0-0.

As for looking at new signings, we got to see probably one of the strangest signings in action with Roma, Adriano made his debut for the giallorossi with a goal. Roma played a mixed team of Riscone-Brunico, and the final score was 13-0 for Roma, with the Emperor playing for 60 minutes. Ranieri is looking for revenge this season, not only against Juventus, but also against Inter Milan as he hopes to steal the scudetto from the nerazzurri.

Here are some of the other friendly results, Fiorentina beat Cortina 6-0 with Jovetic scoring a hat trick; Palermo won 7-0 against Radenthein, with 18 year-old Kasami shining with two goals; Catania were guided by Maxi Lopez in their 6-0 victory over Val di Non Monte Ozolo; Bologna beat Raliana 6-0 and Garibaldina 4-0; Chievo scored the most goals than any other friendly in their 18-0 victory over San Zeno di Montagna; and Napoli won 13-0 against US Altipani.

What are your thoughts on these friendlies? Share your thoughts below by commenting.

It took an own goal in the 67th minute by R. Özcan for the Azzurri to draw even after trailing 0-2 on Manager Lippi’s return. 

Italy were expected to ease past Austria in Nice, but Austria hadn’t read the script and Emanuel Pogatetz and Marc Janko fired goals past Azzurri keeper Buffon to make it 2-0 by the 38th minute.

Adding to the early insult was injury when Gennaro Gattuso damaged his shoulder and was forced to withdraw from play.  Overall Italy was poor offensively (some credit to Di Natale who kept pushing forward) the first goal by Gilardino was lady luck in spades as the ball ricocheted off his midsection.

additional info: Alessandro Del Piero made his 90th appearance as an Azzurri

The Azzurri return to the field this evening trying to forget their early departure from Euro competition earlier this summer.  Back with the team is World Cup winning manager Marcello Lippi who has warned his players this will not be an easy task facing Austria with many missing faces in team Italia’s roster.

It’s half time in Nice France and Italy trail Austria by a goal.  Prior to match-time Lippi was quoted saying, “With Austria I hope to see a Italy that fight” I hope so to but it’ll have to happen in the second half if they hope to salvage this one.

All out with injury are Marco Materazzi, Mauro Camoranesi, Fabio Cannavaro, Giorgio Chiellini, Luca Toni and Gennaro Gattuso who started but picked up an injury in the first 45mins.  Missing also include Antonio Cassano as well as Christian Panucci and Massimo Ambrosini never favorites of Manager Lippi.

Goalscorers: Pogatetz 14 (A), Janko 38 (A), Gilardino 45 (I)

Italy: Buffon; Zambrotta, Bonera, Barzagli, Grosso; Gattuso (Perrotta 45), Pirlo, De Rossi; Di Natale, Gilardino, Del Piero
Austria: Manninger; Garics, Prodl, Stranzl, Pogatetz; Scharner, Saumel, Harnik, Ivanschitz, Fuchs; Maierhofer
Ref: Coue’ (Fra)