01 Jun 2014 AFP Fiorentina striker Giuseppe Rossi was the major absentee when Italy coach Cesare Prandelli named his 23-man FIFA World Cup™ squad on Sunday. Rossis exclusion was perhaps not a huge surprise as he missed four months of the season due to injury and did not have enough time to rediscover his form and fitness to convince Prandelli of his worth. Another missing from the list was AC Milan midfielder Riccardo Montolivo, whose World Cup ambitions ended when he suffered a broken leg in Saturdays warm- up against Republic of Ireland. Versatile Napoli attacking player Lorenzo Insigne instead joins forwards Mario Balotelli and Ciro Immobile on the plane to Brazil. Italy are in Group D alongside England, Uruguay and Costa Rica. Italy squad Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Salvatore Sirigu (Paris Saint-Germain), Mattia Perin (Genoa) Defenders: Ignazio Abate (AC Milan), Andrea Barzagli (Juventus), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Matteo Darmian (Torino), Mattia De Sciglio (AC Milan), Gabriel Paletta (Parma) Midfielders: Alberto Aquilani (Fiorentina), Antonio Candreva (Lazio), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Thiago Motta (Paris Saint-Germain), Marco Parolo (Parma), Andrea Pirlo (Juventus), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint-Germain) Forwards: Mario Balotelli (AC Milan), Antonio Cassano (Parma), Alessio Cerci (Torino), Ciro Immobile (Torino), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli) * Squad lists are only official once they have been confirmed and published by FIFA on 5 June at 12:00 CET.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 20:37:57 +0000
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