Italy boss Roberto Mancini has confirmed that Juventus midfielder Federico Bernadeschi will be in his final squad for the European Championships.
The 27 year-old hasn’t played regularly at club level this term, with Andrea Pirlo favouring Dejan Kulusevski, Federico Chiesa and Aaron Ramsey in the wide roles, whilst offering Bernadeschi rare outings as a makeshift left-back instead.
He returned to playing further up the pitch for his country last night however, and showed his worth with the opening goal before being credited with two assists later on in the match also.
Mancini has now moved to state that Bernadeschi has already earned his place in the final squad of 26 for the upcoming tournament, describing his inclusion as a ‘certainty’.
“In the second half we played better, we were more aggressive and we were a little quicker in passing,” Mancini said after their 7-0 victory over San Marino(via TuttoSport). “This was important apart from the result that was taken for granted. Someone put me in difficulty today but these are doubts we already had.
“Bernardeschi has always done well with us and is one of the guys who helped us to qualify. We have nothing to say about the its performance and is a certainty for the Euros.
“Kean must have taken a hit and that’s why he came out after the first half but he has enormous room for improvement and he too is an important player.
“Raspadori has done well over the past three months but even earlier. We had promised to give him to the Under 21 team for the match against Portugal but he was not well and going there he only had four days to recover and so I didn’t field him. We kept our promise and gave it to him hoping that everything will go well. For a possible call we will see.”
He could well need to use the European Championships to stake a claim for more regular action at club level also, with Max Allegri set to take over the helm from Andrea Pirlo at Juventus.
Could Allegri get the best out of Bernadeschi and bring him back into the first-team fold?
Patrick
