This should offer Irish fans some hope after the crushing disappointment of Saturday.
The Republic of Ireland lost 3-0 to Belgium in Bordeaux, dropping to the bottom of Group E and leaving their Euro 2016 chances hanging by a thread.
Martin O’Neill’s side will need a number of games in the other groups to go their way, and to beat Italy on Wednesday in Lille, to progress to the last-16.
It won’t be an easy task, but there’s some potentially positive news in the form of Antonio Conte resting players for the fixture.
The Azzurri are already safely through, and will use the tie to give game time to fringe members of the squad. That’s the good news for Ireland. The bad news is that it’s still Italy, the players coming into the team won’t be short of motivation and it’ll take a dramatic improvement from Ireland to give themselves any chance of getting a result.
Here’s the Italian XI expected to start against Ireland, according to Gazzetta dello Sport:
Legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon reportedly missed training on Sunday, and will be one of nine replacements for the Azzurri. Salvatore Sirigu of Paris Saint-Germain takes his place.
At the back, only Andrea Barzagli remains from Italy’s 1-0 win over Sweden. Matteo Darmian is expected to fill in at central defence, alongside Angelo Ogbonna.
In midfield, Alessandro Florenzi keeps his place. Thiago Motta, Stefano Sturaro, Mattia De Scgilio and Stephan El Shaarawy will make their first starts of the tournament.
Up front, Eder and Graziano Pelle are rested for Simone Zaza and Ciro Immobile.
The Italian media outlet predicts the team will remain in their 3-5-2 formation, but could shift to 4-4-2.
