As far as I know, the Ukrainians don't have any big absentees, so Monday is the expected start: Trubin, Mykolenko, Matviyenko, Zabarnyi, Karavayev, Zinchenko, Sydorchuk, Mudryk, Sudakov, Vanat, Dovbyk could be. The Ukrainians last played a competitive match 1 month ago, when they beat Malta 1-3 away. It would be a great tribute to the war-torn country if the national team beat Italy on Monday. Ukraine have lost only one of their last seven matches, although that defeat came in Italy, in Milan. They beat the Azzurri Rebrov's boys 2-1. The national team played a closed goalkeeper match against Lechia Gdansk, which they won 2-0. The coaching staff managed to experiment and give as many players as possible a chance to prove themselves. The captain's armband was worn by three players during the match - Serhiy Sidorchuk, Oleksandr Zintsenko and Taras Stepanenko. Spalletti's team played well and organised football in the first half. The second half was a bit of a sleeper for the Azzurri and the three-goal lead was reduced to just one at the end of the 70th minute. To the Macedonians' credit, they kept fighting despite the big deficit and surprised their opponents. Through Chiesa, the Italians eventually defeated Macedonia 5-2 to provisionally claim second place.
The Juventus star is very comfortable in Spalletti's system, where he can be closer to goal and move more freely than with Allegri. Monday will decide the value of Saturday's success, as the Italians continue to have a lot of absentees. Di Lorenzo, Manuel Locatelli, Davide Calabria, Alex Meret, Rafael Toloi, Destiny Udogie, Giorgio Scalvini, Gianluca Mancini are all injured, while Tonali is serving a 10-month ban.
With a new captain, Italy are playing more proactive football and therefore the vulnerability of the defence at the back has increased. Ukraine, if they can break free from the Italian pressure, could lead to life-threatening counter-attacks on Donnarumma's goal.
I expect a crazy game with a lot of goals, because the Italian defence is very vulnerable and you can't win this match defensively.