Italy coach Roberto Mancini said Wednesday that his new striker Mateo Retegui reminded him of Argentina great Gabriel Batistuta, as the Tigre forward prepares for a possible Azzurri debut against England.

Mancini’s side kick off the defence of their European title in Naples on Thursday and hinted that Argentina-born Retegui could make his first appearance for his new national team after being called up for the first time for the opening Group C qualifier.

“I don’t want to exaggerate but he reminds me a bit of Batistuta when he arrived in Italy... he’s a young man, he needs to get to know his teammates, and that’s not easy,” Mancini told reporters.

“I don’t think it’s very easy to come to Italy, and not to a club, but to the national team. We’ve got a lot of faith in him but we need to give him a bit of time.”

Read full story on www.sportsdesk.com.mt

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.