Nations League: France vs. Italy official line-ups

Italy start Sandro Tonali, Riccardo Calafiori, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Matteo Retegui in the Nations League trip to France, including a trio of Milan players and Kylian Mbappé.

It kicks off at Parc des Princes in Paris at 19.45 UK time (18.45 GMT).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the LIVEBLOG.

This is the opening Nations League game in a group that also has Belgium and Israel, who are playing each other this evening, while the Azzurri face the latter on Monday night.

Luciano Spalletti pledged big changes after the disastrous EURO 2024 campaign, shelving his tactical experiments to stick with a three-man defense.

Alessandro Bastoni has shaken off a knock to start for Italy, with Samuele Ricci and Davide Frattesi joining Tonali, who returns to international duty after his 10-month ban for breaching betting regulations.

Nicolò Barella is out after an operation on his sinuses and Nicolò Zaniolo is still injured.

Retegui is chosen to lead the line, as there are only three remaining players from the XI that started against Switzerland in that Round of 16 debacle.

Lorenzo Pellegrini is a surprise, potentially in a trequartista role, while Andrea Cambiaso is chosen instead of Raoul Bellanova.

France have been beset by injury problems in the build-up to this match, as well as losing Olivier Giroud to international retirement and Adrien Rabiot being still without a club.

Wesley Fofana, Ferland Mendy and Aurelien Tchaouameni all pulled out, replaced by Loic Badé, Lucas Digne and Lazio midfielder Matteo Guendouzi.

However, Badé also sustained a muscular problem and surprisingly Liverpool’s Ibrahim Konaté starts, despite not playing a single minute of football at EURO 2024.

Although they reached the semi-final of the Euros, they did it scoring only one goal from open play, so Didier Deschamps has to face down his critics too.

New Real Madrid signing Mbappé moves into a centre-forward role, supported by youngsters Michael Olise and Bradley Barcola.

Antoine Griezmann enters the starting XI too rather than Randal Kolo Muane.

There are three Milan players in the starting XI – Mike Maignan, Theo Hernandez and Youssouf Fofana.

France vs. Italy line-ups

France: Maignan; Clauss, Konaté, Saliba, Theo Hernandez; And Fofana, Kanté; Griezmann, Olise, Barcola; Mbappe

Italy: Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Bastoni, Calafiori; Cambiaso, Frattesi, Ricci, Tonali, Dimarco; Pellegrini; Retegui

Ref: Schärer (SUI)