PAPER TALK - How Italy can beat Belgium, Roma on Murillo, Inter on Berardi, Juve's ultimatum
A detailed tactical analysis of Belgium (who are said to be starting Laurent Ciman instead of Jason Denayer) follows, as well as a good piece on also-rans Eder and Graziano Pelle, who suddenly find themselves the potential stars of the show. Notice the average age of the Azzurri, most of who are either side of thirty.
One detail: though the Rosea does well in analysing Marouane Fellaini's threat in the air, Belgium's full-back problems and the fact that star players Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard have only combined for two goals, the Gazzetta's writers are hyping the rumour that Italy will defend high. This looks a bit counter-intuitive: many others have defended outside the box and given the Diables very little. Why wouldn't Italy?
Moving on to transfer news, the Gazzetta sneaks in a story about Verratti in a piece about Ibrahimovic: it turns out not only that the Swede is trying to convince the Italian to move to Manchester United... but so is Jose himself!
Elsewhere La Rosea introduces Steven Zhang, the son of Suning owner Zhang Jindong, who has already created a good rapport with Massimo Moratti and will be in charge in Milan, though it looks like manager Jun Ren (38 years old) will be monitoring everything very closely, working as he does 18 hours a day.
In other Inter-related news, Antonio Candreva is said to be looking for a home in Milan, whilst Andrea Ranocchia could be used to swing Sassuolo over Francesco Acerbi or Sime Vrsaljko.
Juventus' wednesday summit with Real Madrid has been mentioned, as well as their ultimatum to Sassuolo man Domenico Berardi, who seems hesitant about playing for the Turinese side, likely over a lack of playing time.
Lazio, for their part, won't offer Marcelo Bielsa more than €2.5 million a year, with the Argentine manager asking for €3.5m.
Inter have scared off Roma by raising the price of Jeison Murillo to the 30-35m mark, which is what the Giallorossi have earned (give or take) for Miralem Pjanic, who is set to land in Turin today.
On the Napoli front, president De Laurentiis has confirmed that centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly will 'pay' for saying that he would likely leave the club, whilst target Piotr Zielinski is reported to have given his word to Liverpool that he would sign for them, so far rebuffing Napoli's advances.
The Corriere dello Sport joins in the Berardi fray by claiming that Inter are subjecting the striker to their advances. Both papers also speak of Berlusconi's imminent meeting with impresario Sal Galatioto, in which the outline of the sale to the Chinese consortium is set to be laid out.
The Italian press also agrees both on Germany's struggles against the Ukraine, but also the prime role played by Sami Khedira, who gets an impressive 7.5 from the Corriere. The Roman paper also mentions that Szczesny had a great game for Poland, as did matchwinner Arkadiusz Milik, whom Walter Sabatini would like to bring to Rome.
Napoli are said to be ready to call dibs on Lyon midfielder Corentin Tolisso, whilst more is written on the USA's qualification to the Copa America quarter-finals, following their 1-0 win over Paraguay. The Corriere believes, on the other hand, that Lazio and Bielsa have already reached an agreement based on a €3m-a-season salary.
Tuttosport mostly follows the line imposed by its rivals, though its Turinese contacts have the Granata taking Filip Djuricic, who has long been linked to Sinisa Mihajlovic, who allowed him to make his debut for Serbia back when he was a little-known midfielder.
Enzo Maresca, a former Malaga player under Manuel Pellegrini, also endorses his former coach, encouraging AC Milan not to lose him. With many skipping to read about Ferrari's best race of the year (and they still came second...), many others were happy to see Gennaro Gattuso's Pisa return to Serie B, after a tense play-off final with Foggia. The game was interrupted for five minutes as Apulian ultras invaded the pitch, even hitting the former Milan enforced with a bottle.
