Calafiori injury: how Italy can replace Arsenal star in second leg vs. Germany

Riccardo Calafiori will miss Italy’s return leg against Germany in the Nations League quarter-finals, and Alessandro Buongiorno seems the most obvious option for replacing the Arsenal defender.

Calafiori sustained a knee injury in the final minutes of Thursday’s Nations League quarter-final first leg against Germany and is already returning to Arsenal, where he’s expected to miss two to three weeks of action.

Calafiori had already missed Italy’s last two games of 2024: an away 1-0 win in Belgium and a home 1-3 loss to France.

Italy CT Luciano Spalletti had started the same three-man defence in games against Belgium and France, picking Alessandro Bastoni, Buongiorno and Giovanni Di Lorenzo.

Calafiori injury: how Italy can replace Arsenal star in second leg vs. Germany

With Calafiori injured again, Spalletti will likely choose the same players for Sunday’s return match against Germany in Dortmund.

Bastoni would return to the left side of Italy’s three-man defence, with Buongiorno playing in the middle.

Spalletti had words of praise for Buongiorno during a press conference earlier this week, and the Napoli defender seems a guaranteed starter in the upcoming away fixture.

Juventus’ Federico Gatti and Fiorentina’s Pietro Comuzzo are also part of the team travelling to Dortmund.

Both Gatti and Comuzzo are well suited to cover a central role in a three-man defence, although the Juventus man can also be deployed on the right, so he may challenge Di Lorenzo for a starting spot in Germany.

Spalletti will surely say more about his possible choices against Germany in a pre-match press conference on the eve of the game on Saturday.