{"id":381597,"date":"2025-11-15T21:45:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T21:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/381597\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T21:45:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T21:45:15","slug":"arsenal-defender-riccardo-calafiori-out-of-italy-squad-gennaro-gattuso-confirms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/381597\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal defender Riccardo Calafiori out of Italy squad, Gennaro Gattuso confirms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Riccardo<\/p>\n

Alex Livesey\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Arsenal defender Riccardo Calafiori has withdrawn from the Italy squad before their final World Cup group-stage qualifier against Norway.<\/p>\n

Calafiori, 23, missed Italy\u2019s victory over Moldova on Thursday, and head coach Gennaro Gattuso said while he could have played against Norway, this would not have been \u201cfair\u201d on the left-back or Arsenal.<\/p>\n

Arsenal play Tottenham Hotspur in the season\u2019s first north London derby on Sunday, November 23.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalafiori left the training camp,\u201d Gattuso told a pre-match press conference on Saturday, in quotes carried by Sky Sports Italia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried Calafiori, he had a few issues. I thank him for his commitment: he stayed here for a week, he could have played perhaps, but it wouldn\u2019t have been fair to him or Arsenal. We\u2019ll see who plays between (Gianluca) Mancini and (Alessandro) Buongiorno.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italy are three points behind group leaders Norway but have a far inferior goal difference, meaning they need to win Sunday\u2019s game by nine goals or more if they are to avoid the play-offs and qualify automatically for next summer\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n

Calafiori has made 12 appearances in all competitions for Arsenal this season, providing a goal and two assists. He has started all 11 of their top-flight fixtures, with Mikel Arteta\u2019s side four points clear at the Premier League summit.<\/p>\n

The Italy international joined Arsenal from Bologna in a \u00a342million move in the summer of 2024. Injuries restricted him to 19 Premier League appearances during his debut season in north London.<\/p>\n

Arsenal were without the injured Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, Victor Gyokeres, Noni Madueke and Kai Havertz before November\u2019s international break.<\/p>\n

\"Connections:\"Connections:<\/p>\n

Nov 15, 2025<\/p>\n

Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n

Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n

Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Livesey\/Getty Images Arsenal defender Riccardo Calafiori has withdrawn from the Italy squad before their final World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":381598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[5407,2219,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-381597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-italy","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115555908346391211","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}