To consolidate first place in Group J and make the path to EURO 2020 qualification much clearer: this is the objective of the National Team, who have got together in Bologna to prepare for their upcoming matches against Armenia (at 18:00 on Sunday 8 September at the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium in Yerevan) and Finland (at 20:45 on Sunday 8 September at the Tampere Stadion in Tampere). The latest news is that Bryan Cristante has had to drop out with flu (he didn’t depart from Rome in the morning) and is no longer in the squad. Meanwhile, Grifo (Freiburg) and Tonali (Brescia) are leaving the Under-21s’ training camp in Catania to join up with the senior side. Insigne’s condition is also set to be assessed to see if he’ll be able to depart for Yerevan on Wednesday. Over the past few days, Giorgio Chiellini and Mattia De Sciglio have been replaced by Francesco Acerbi and Danilo D’Ambrosio after picking up injuries.

On Monday afternoon, the Azzurri held their first session at the Niccolò Galli Training Centre in Casteldebole, where Roberto Mancini held his first press conference since the team got together. Italy are looking to carry on their winning run against the two sides who are directly behind them in the group, perhaps surprisingly so given that they’re currently ahead of Greece and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the standings. The Head Coach had this to say: “They won’t be easy games because both the Armenian and Finnish players have been playing for months and their physical condition is at 100%. Ours is slightly less than that. We do, however, have great technical ability and class, and we’ll need to fight until the end.”

Mancini, who is thinking about Sinisa Mihajlovic as he battles leukaemia (“I’ve talked to him, everything seems to be going well with him and that makes me happy”), then talked about Nicolò Zaniolo and Moise Kean missing out, two promising youngsters who made headlines during the Under-21 European Championship for off-the-pitch reasons: “I’m sure they'll come in handy later on, they’re two players who we’re very much counting on. They did something silly, they need to learn but are still young. They’ll be in the next squad if they deserve to be in it.”

With two matches in quick succession, thoughts will surely turn to utilising many players: “We’ll make some changes, even though the team is more defined than last year. Back then, we were at the beginning and I needed to also assess youngsters in a difficult context.”

Squad list

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan), Pierluigi Gollini (Atalanta), Alex Meret (Napoli), Salvatore Sirigu (Torino);

Defenders: Francesco Acerbi (Lazio), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Danilo D’Ambrosio (Inter), Emerson Palmieri (Chelsea), Alessandro Florenzi (Roma), Armando Izzo (Torino), Gianluca Mancini (Roma), Luca Pellegrini (Cagliari), Alessio Romagnoli (Milan);

Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Sandro Tonali (Brescia), Frello Filho Jorge Luiz Jorginho (Chelsea), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Stefano Sensi (Inter), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain);

Forwards: Andrea Belotti (Torino), Federico Bernardeschi (Juventus), Federico Chiesa (Fiorentina), Stephan El Shaarawy (Shangai Shenhua), Vincenzo Grifo (Freiburg), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli), Kevin Lasagna (Udinese).

The National Team's schedule*

Monday 2 September
Meet in Bologna by midday
17:30 CEST - Press Conference with the Head Coach at the Isokinetic Medical Centre in Bologna (Casteldebole)
18:00 CEST - Training at the Niccolò Galli Training Centre (Casteldebole, open to the media)

Tuesday 3 September
17:30 CEST - Press conference with the players at the Isokinetic Medical Centre in Bologna
18:00 CEST - Training at the Niccolò Galli Training Centre (Casteldebole, behind closed doors)

Wednesday 4 September
10:00 CEST - Flight departs from Bologna to Yerevan

All times below are in local time (+2 in relation to CEST)

18:30 (16:30 CEST) - Press conference with the Coach and one player at the Republican Stadium
19:00 (17:00 CEST) - MD-1 Training at the Republican Stadium (open to the media for the first 15 minutes)

Thursday 5 September
20:00 (18:00 CEST) - Armenia vs. Italy at the Republican Stadium. Meeting with the media after the game and then return to team hotel

Friday 6 September
10:30 (8:30 CEST) - Training at the FFA Academy Training Centre (behind closed doors)
16:40 (14:40 CEST) - Flight departs from Yerevan to Tampere
All times below are in local time (+1 in relation to CET)

Saturday 7 September
17:30 (16:30 CEST) - Press conference with the Coach and one player at the Tampere Stadium
18:00 (17:00 CEST) - MD-1 Training at the Tampere Stadium (open to the media for the first 15 minutes)

Sunday 8 September
21:45 (20:45 CEST) - Finland vs. Italy at the Tampere Stadium. Meeting with the media after the game and then airport transfer
01:15 (00:15 CEST) - Flight departs from Tampere to Malpensa/Rome

*Training and press times in Bologna may be subject to change