Four Italy players under consideration for play-offs in Udinese vs. Juventus
Gennaro Gattuso is less than a week away from announcing his Italy national team squad for the World Cup play-off campaign at the end of the month, and though several Azzurri hopefuls will be involved in Udinese vs. Juventus in Serie A on Saturday evening, only three or four are expected to be under genuine consideration for a call-up.
Italy are preparing to take on Northern Ireland in a World Cup play-off semi-final on March 26, and the winner of that tie will go on to face either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina away from home on March 31 in a one-off decider for a spot at the final tournament.
This weekend’s round of Serie A fixtures is the last set of league matches before Gattuso announces his squad, and the penultimate set of league games before players head off for the international break.
Which Juventus players could feature in the next Italy squad?
On the Serie A schedule this Saturday evening is Juventus’s visit to Udinese. The Old Lady have a former CT in Luciano Spalletti in charge, and are expected to field a number of Italy hopefuls in Udine this evening.
Juventus have two Italian goalkeepers on their books in Michele Di Gregorio and Mattia Perin, but the former has disappointed with his performances in 2025-26 and has recently lost his no.1 status to the latter. Neither are expected to be in the Italy squad this month.
Federico Gatti started in Juventus’s 4-0 win over Pisa last weekend, but he is not guaranteed to keep his place in the Bianconeri line-up, nor is he a nailed-on member of Gattuso’s Italy squad. That said, his inclusion can’t be definitively ruled out either. The chances of him starting over the likes of Alessandro Bastoni, Riccardo Calafiori, Alessandro Buongiorno or Gianluca Mancini are slim, though.
The other three Juventus players that are in contention to feature in Italy’s World Cup play-off squad are Andrea Cambiaso, Manuel Locatelli and Fabio Miretti.
Cambiaso has been a mainstay of the Italy set-up under its last three head coaches, but despite his ability to play on either flank, he will face plenty of competition from the likes of Federico Dimarco, Marco Palestra and potentially even Michael Kayode on both sides of the pitch.
Locatelli, meanwhile, is expected to start for Italy at the base of its midfield, which is also likely to feature Inter’s Nicolo Barella and Newcastle United’s Sandro Tonali.
Miretti is also one of the midfielders in contention to be called up to the Italy squad, albeit as more of a squad player given the aforementioned options in the starting XI.
The most high-profile Italy player on Udinese’s books is Nicolo Zaniolo, who, however, is not expected to be called up to the national team squad this month according to recent reports from various outlets in Italy.