One by one, the doors are closing on Giorgio Chiellini. This remarkable Italian has played his last game for Juventus on May 21st against Fiorentina and closed a 17 year old chapter with the Old Lady, and he is now about to do the same with his country’s national team. After winning Euro 2022 with Italy last year, he will finish his international career at the same ground, at the famous Wembley on Wednesday. Chiellini’s definite goodbye: I did everything I could, I hope I left something behindAzzuri are about to face South American champions Argentina in his last 117th cap for Italy, and the experienced defender says he feels happy and proud of his achievements so far, and also think that ending his international career against Argentina is ‘beautiful’. “Argentina have exceptional players. It’s obvious that the first one who comes to your mind is Lionel Messi, but the others around him are fantastic. They didn’t win the Copa America by accident. Messi is a football icon. It’s not for me to say if he is the greatest of all time or not. It will just be a pleasure to play my last game for the national team against him. It has been, without a doubt, better than I could ever have imagined. When you’re a kid, you dream of playing for the national team, because that’s the ultimate. The thought of being able to play more than 100 games over the course of 18 years, being captain, and lifting an important cup like I did last year at Wembley was the icing on the cake” said Chiellini to Uefa.com. (2.90) ITALY (3.00) ARGENTINA (2.70) Italy manager Roberto Mancini is likely to include a number of his Euro 2020 stars in the starting XI for a match he has said represents the “end of a cycle” following the shock failure of the four-time winners to qualify for this year’s World Cup finals in Qatar. “Tomorrow’s match will be a match that ends a cycle. From Wednesday we will include youngsters and start thinking about the future. If the clubs play their youngsters or not is not down to me, we can’t be begging anyone if they don’t want to do it” said former Manchester City coach.
