Italy’s Inbetweeners: 7 players who need to step up to make the World Cup

The Under-21 Graduates: Lorenzo Insigne – Napoli, Marco Verratti – PSG, Alessandro Florenzi – Roma

As previously discussed, talented young trio Lorenzo Insigne, Marco Verratti, and Alessandro Florenzi are certainly keen on taking their careers to the next level with the Azzurri in Brazil come July 2014.

The under-21 standouts have all featured for the senior squad and were simultaneously called up to the most recent iteration of the Italy set-up, having had fruitful starts to their respective seasons with their clubs.

Florenzi has hit four goals for Roma as he has been converted to a winger by Rudi Garcia, Insigne struck a spectacular winner for Napoli to sink Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League to complement 11 chances created in domestic play, and Verratti leads Ligue 1 in completed passes with 510.

The triumvirate quite clearly has the confidence of Prandelli, who has shown he is receptive to integrating youth into Italy’s ranks, but will be expected to display further maturation and growth to realise their dreams of representing their country in the world’s most heralded international competition.