Zoff drops Albertini in midfield reshuffle

February 20, 2000
Reuters

Udinese's Stefano Fiore and Alessio Tacchinardi of Juventus received their first Italy call-ups on Sunday for a friendly against Sweden but fellow midfielder Demetrio Albertini was dropped.

Fiore and Tacchinardi were the only new faces in Dino Zoff's 20-man party to face Sweden in Palermo on Wednesday, a foretaste of their first round clash at the European championship in June. Fiore has enjoyed a fine season at Udinese since his transfer from Parma last summer. He scored a spectacular goal in his side's 5-1 rout of Bari earlier on Sunday. Tacchinardi has been on the fringe of the Italy set-up all season after his commanding performances at the heart of the Juventus midfield and his inclusion was expected.

But there was no place in Zoff's party for Albertini, capped 65 times and a regular in the Italy side since his debut in December 1991. Albertini has been squeezed out of the AC Milan first team in recent weeks and said recently he felt his international career might be over.

His AC Milan team mate Paolo Maldini will almost certainly captain the side against the Swedes and orchestrate a settled defence including Lazio's Alessandro Nesta, Inter Milan's Christian Panucci and Fabio Cannavaro of Parma.

Juve's Filippo Inzaghi and AS Roma's Vincenzo Montella, both hat-trick scorers at the weekend, are named among the forwards alongside Alessandro Del Piero, Christian Vieri and Roma playmaker Francesco Totti.

Squad: 
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Parma), Francesco Toldo (Fiorentina)

Defenders: Paolo Maldini (AC Milan), Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Negro (both Lazio), Christian Panucci (Inter Milan), Fabio Cannavaro (Parma), Ciro Ferrara (Juventus)

Midfielders: Diego Fuser (Parma), Gianluca Pessotto, Antonio Conte and Alessio Tacchinardi (all Juventus), Stefano Fiore and Tomas Locatelli (both Udinese), Massimo Ambrosini (AC Milan)

Forwards: Christian Vieri (Inter Milan), Filippo Inzaghi and Alessandro Del Piero (both Juventus), Francesco Totti and Vincenzo Montella (both AS Roma)

The Italy party will gather next Monday at Coverciano in anticipation of Wednesday's international.
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