{"id":146,"date":"2026-03-30T05:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/146\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T05:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:40:12","slug":"former-italy-stars-want-pio-esposito-to-start-world-cup-play-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/146\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Italy stars want Pio Esposito to start World Cup play-off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Italy players Antonio Di Natale and Alberico Evani both encourage Gennaro Gattuso to start Francesco Pio Esposito in the World Cup play-off with Bosnia.<\/p>\n

It kicks off at the Stadion Bilino Polje in Zenica on Tuesday March 31 at 19.45 UK time.<\/p>\n

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Pio Esposito pushing for Italy start\"\"<\/p>\n

MILAN, ITALY \u2013 MARCH 14: Francesco Pio Esposito of Inter warms up prior to the Serie A match between FC Internazionale and Atalanta BC at Giuseppe Meazza Stadium on March 14, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

There are likely to be changes from the side that beat Northern Ireland 2-0 in the semi-final, the main one perhaps seeing Esposito preferred to Mateo Retegui<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would always put Pio Esposito in the starting XI,\u201d former Udinese and Italy striker Di Natale told reporters at an event in Rome.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe important thing is that Italy go back to the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old has flourished in the Inter senior squad this season with nine goals and six assists in 40 competitive games.<\/p>\n

His Italy record is also impressive, finding the net three times in just six senior caps after being a stalwart for the Under-21 team.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can tell his potential and despite being very young, he is playing regularly for an important club like Inter without suffering from the pressure,\u201d added Evani in Tuttosport and Tuttomercatoweb.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cHe can become a player of the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italy faltered in the World Cup play-offs for 2018 and 2022, so Evani notes the biggest problem for coach Gattuso.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first opponent is time, because you just don\u2019t have any. The players arrived on Sunday at the camp after club duty, so on Monday didn\u2019t do any real training, and then had to play on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll you can do in that time is choose the players most suited to your ideas, but it\u2019s not easy to unite results and entertainment. Talent makes the difference in those situations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Italy players Antonio Di Natale and Alberico Evani both encourage Gennaro Gattuso to start Francesco Pio Esposito…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[174,172,180,176,143,44,5,179,175,173,177,178,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-italy","8":"tag-alberico-evani","9":"tag-antonio-di-natale","10":"tag-atalanta-bc","11":"tag-esposito","12":"tag-gennaro-gattuso","13":"tag-inter","14":"tag-italy","15":"tag-mateo-retegui","16":"tag-milan","17":"tag-pio-esposito","18":"tag-stadion-bilino-polje","19":"tag-udinese","20":"tag-world-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}