Marcello Lippi’s provisional 30-man squad has been confirmed, with a blend of experience and fresh talent, la Nazionale will be hopeful of retaining the Cup they won in 2006.

Roma forward Luca Toni has been dropped, as has Juventus’ Nicola Legrottaglie. Giuseppe Rossi of Villarreal is newly included. To be expected, Roma’s Daniele De Rossi has been picked for the squad despite missing out on the training programme last week due to the Coppa Italia final.

Here is the full squad list as confirmed by the FIGC.

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon, Morgan de Sanctis, Federico Marchetti, Salvatore Sirigu

Defenders: Fabio Cannavaro, Fabio Grosso, Giorgio Chiellini, Gianluca Zambrotta, Domenico Criscito, Christian Maggio, Salvatore Bocchetti, Mattia Cassani, Leonardi Bonucci

Midfielders: Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Mauro Camoranesi, Daniele De Rossi, Angelo Palombo, Simone Pepe, Riccardo Montolivo, Claudio Marchisio, Antonio Candreva,Andrea Cossu

Forwards: Alberto Gilardino, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Antonio Di Natale, Fabio Quagliarella, Giuseppe Rossi, Marco Borriello, Giampaolo Pazzini

The current holders of the World Cup, Italy are fairly long odds at 15.00 to retain the World Cup in South Africa. A host of other nations including Holland (13.00), Germany (13.00), and England (7.00) are shorter odds than the Italians.

Andrea Pirlo and Gianluigi Buffon believe Italy have a good chance of winning the trophy due to the expertise and high calibre within the squad.

“We have many experienced players. I say we are experts, not old. Looking how we can play at high levels for long periods, we can go far in the competition,” Pirlo recently said during an interview.

It has to be said that the odds on Italy are likely to go down rapidly should they get some good results prior to the tournament. So back them now at a fat 15.00 to lift the World Cup with PartyBets.com.

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